#2m, by God!

The newest rankings of men's Division One basketball are out.

And West (by God!) Virginia is #2!!!

People from the Mountain State usually say "West (by God!) Virginia" when asked by folks outside Appalachia where they are from. I remember several people during my time at Harvard asking, "near Richmond or on the coast?" when I told them where I born and raised. No doubt they were all smart people (being at Harvard and all...) but had some strange geography deficit.

I didn't see the ocean until I was 12 since West (bG!) Virginia doesn't have any coast line.

Incidentally, that was the last time WVU was ranked as high as #2! It was Jerry West's senior year and WVU lost in the NCAA final game by one point to California (71-70).

That's a long time between being #2. But they are now.

In fact they are undefeated in the US (lost their first game to Texas A&M in Germany for goodness sake) but have come back to win 14 in a row. Saturday night they beat Oklahoma who was #7 and WVU was #6. Enough upsets above them and up they jumped this week.

Let's Go, Mountaineers!

Epiphany

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. It commemorates, in Christian lore, the arrival of the Magi from Persia at Jesus' home in  or near Bethlehem. He is usually thought to be two years old since, after the Wise men depart, a worried Herod orders the execution of all the male children in that area two years old or younger. (Which event is observed on the Feast of the Holy Innocents--December 28.)

So, just to be clear to all you creche owners and directors of Church School Christmas pageants, those three world traveler's shouldn't be there. They left Persia when they saw the star--it was a long way on camel back! But, never mind me, take center stage from the shepherds and throw Wise Men into the mix if you must....

But what fascinates me and causes me to ponder is the meaning of the word 'epiphany'--which comes from the Greek epi-phainein, which means 'to show'.

A definition I memorized years ago is this: "a sudden, intuitive insight into the deep-down meaning of things, usually caused by something simple, ordinary and day to day".

I don't know which part of the definition gives me more wonder and joy--the sudden and intuitive insight part, the deep-down mean of things part, or the simple, ordinary part.

Perhaps the best known 'epiphany' was when Archimedies (281-212 BC) watched the water rise in his bath when he got in and realized he could determine an object's density by putting it in water and see how much water it displaced. Legendarily, Archimedies ran through the streets naked, shouting, "Eureka, I have found it!"

That meets the test for sudden/intuitive and deep-down meaning and simple and ordinary.

Taking a bath might not have been a daily thing in 200 BC, but it was simple and ordinary.

My urging is for us all to keep our eyes open and our hearts and minds open and 'be with' what is ordinary and commonplace and simple. Be available for some insight you didn't expect or ask for. Long for 'the deep-down meaning of things'.

Epiphany for Christians is a season--from today until Ash Wednesday (which is Valentine's day this year--and, get this, Easter is April fools day). But I wish you epiphanies, not just for a season, but always.

Look around: the simple and ordinary have much to teach us and inspire us with....

"Insightful Epiphany!" to you....

Snow Daze

Much of the time I think weather forecasters are like an half-wit old man somewhere in the mountains of Appalachia flipping the dollar coin he's had since his 12th birthday in 1948. Sometimes heads, sometimes tails--one or the other about half the time.

But they got today right, by all that is sacred.

The dog got up quite early but Bern has already swept the porch and deck and dug out some space in the back yard for him. Still, after doing his business, his black hair was practically all white and Bern was covered as well.

The thing about this snow is that it is easy to sweep or shovel away. But I think between us we have swept the back porch and deck 10 times and it is always back in a matter of minutes.

Don't even mention the front porch or the walkway to the parking area or the parking area or the car and truck. Even Mark, our next door neighbor who is usually a snow shoveling fool hasn't touche the parking area or their two trucks.

It's going to keep snowing and blowing until 11 or so tonight. I have no idea how many inches it's been but sweeping an inch or more 10 times gives you some ball park idea.

Cornwall Avenue has been plowed several times but it looks like three inches of new snow right now at just past 5 p.m.

They did pick up the trash and Bern retrieved our trash can before it blew down to Route 10 (a.k.a. South Main Street) but the top to it is under a snow drift somewhere in our front yard.

Bela dog has slept most of the day, hoping to sleep until May, I think.

Which wouldn't be a bad idea.

The President, He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named, tweeted that this gives the lie to 'global warming'--not near the dumbest thing he's tweeted today. "It's climate change," Mr. fake leader of the Free World. This is simply 'weather', though the conditions for the weather have changed. 14 inches in parts of North Carolina. Almost freezing in Tampa. Hardly normal.

Yet, this is New England and this is New England weather.

Lord, help us!

New Year's hopes

For people like me--far-Left Democrats-almost-Socialist-globalists--2017 hasn't been much fun.

Well, that tepid statement doesn't give 2017 the credit it deserves. It was a vivid nightmare of epic proportions!

And it's hard to feel hopeful for this New Year when so much I've believed in--open boarders, tight regulations, environmental measures, reducing the military, being 'one' with Western Europe, NAFTA, progress in racial relations, welcoming the stranger into our midst, Gender equality, full inclusion of GLBT folks, Green Energy, taxing the rich to pay for social programs and social programs themselves--have been threatened if not eroded.

I could say, I suppose, that I hope the Mueller investigation would lead to President He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named's impeachment.

But what would that get me? Mike Pence, for God's sake!!!

I could hope the Democrats make incredible gains in 2018--but gerrymandering and voter suppression weigh against that, at least in a way the changes things.

I suppose I hope that people will continue to organize and be moved to push back against the current waves of un-doing, not just Obama's legacy but the American Ethic and Dream.

For me, ethics and dreams are attached at the hip, con-joined twins. Any 'dream' that doesn't put both ethics and compassion front and center isn't, for me, worth having. And any 'ethical' thought that doesn't include a 'dream' of it being made true isn't worth thinking.

That's been the disconnect for me in the past year. "The American Dream" has been reduced to "Make America Great Again"--which seems to move to the past, not the future, to an "America" that, truth be known, either never existed or, if it did, shouldn't have.

Dreams and Hopes are for what should be true. They are not a retreat into a 'simpler, more basic time' where the lines were clear and what 'was' was more important that 'what needs to be'.

I know, I know, I'm just raving my left-wing, let's all be equal and free and fulfilled jingoism now.

I know that.

And, I know that is my hope for this new year--a possibility that we could all be equal and free and fulfilled. My motto would be "LET'S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AT LAST" since we've never, ever had a time when all of us were equal and free and fulfilled.

It's gotten better over decades of struggle, but there was no point in the past when equality and freedom and fulfillment included us ALL. So, there is no "again" to America's greatness. There's nothing to go back to that was better than the present.

But there is a place to go forward to that would be better: more inclusive, more equal, more free, more compassionate, more ethical, more hopeful, more just, more "more" for all.

That's my hope for 2018, that we as a nation, somehow and against all odds, come to realize that we must form a more perfect future for our grandchildren and those yet unborn, not seek some sentimental reliving of a past that never was.

We must create the Present out of the Future...not the Past.

That 'creation' should be our hope and dream and longing....

my New Year's resolutions

I have never not kept a New Year's Resolution. I'll share this year's and you'll see why.

New Year's Resolutions--2018

1. I will not drink Yak milk this year.

2. I will not visit Iran.

3. I will not buy a BMW.

4. I will not run in the New York marathon.

5. I will write on my blog, "Under the Castor Oil Tree" at least 250 times.

6. I will drink Cranberry juice almost every day.

7. I will love my Puli dog, my wife, my two children and their spouses, my four grand-daughters and those friends in my life.

8. I will consume considerable amounts of white wine.

9. I will not vote for a Republican.

10. I will long for Sanity in this time of President (He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named).

See how easy it is to keep New Year's Resolutions...?

I am not my father

I am not an anxious person.

I am, normally, one of the calmest people you'll ever meet.

I used to be much more like my father. Virgil worried and fretted and was anxious all the time.

Early in our marriage, Bern would say to me, "don't be like Virgil".

I'd be worried or fretting or anxious and she'd say that.

She hasn't said that to me in years.

I am calm and 'present'.

But our so old Puli is making me like Virgil.

We just took him our to pee, Bern and I. It takes us both and a flashlight for the last pee of the night. Never mind that he sometimes pees and even poops in the house, something he's never done before.

Steps are a problem for Bela. And our house is full of steps. Four steps off the front porch. Seven steps off the deck. Thirteen steps up the front and back--though the back steps have a turn nine steps up.

So we 'help' him on the steps, coming up. Sometimes Bern uses a vest with hand holds to help him down the steps. Down is easier than up, but not much.

He eats and poops and pees fine, once we get him down the steps.

But he's always hungry, making our eating a nightmare, throwing him bread with hemp drops on it while he snaps at our hands whenever we move.

And when one of us is cooking, he's there snapping and waiting for what will never come.

And he won't leave my side, most of the time, almost tripping me a dozen times a day.

And he has turned me into Virgil.

I fret and worry about him always.

I'm anxious for him, always.

Mostly it is my grief about him that does all that.

He isn't the dog he was for 13 years.

He is anxious and frightened where he was always alert and aggressive.

His personality has changed.

And I grieve for the dog he's always been. And I'm anxious and worried about him.

My greatest fear is he will hurt himself and be 'put down' in pain.

Bern thinks he'll die in his sleep.

She is optimistic and hopeful.

I fret and worry and become Virgil.

We love Bela so. 13 years is a lot of life to share. His senility and disability jars us so--but in such different ways.

Bern is hopeful. I fret.

So it goes.

And he goes on. Loved beyond knowing and so limited.

I miss him and love him and fret for him all at once.

2 in the top 10

I have this capacity on my blog to see statistics. An amazing thing has happened. Two posts from November are now in the all time top 10 viewed

November 22--"What I do vs. who I be" is #9 and November 8--Putting it all on the line is #10.

Of the rest of the top ten viewed all time, one is from 2011, four from 2012 and three from 2013.

The longer something is on line the more likely it is to be read.

But my readership has grown over the years--a steady upward climb. So, recent  posts have a chance to rise quickly, I suppose.

Just interesting to ponder.

And thanks for reading.