Sweet New Year

A L O H A !

" I arise in the morning torn

between a desire to improve the world

and a desire to enjoy the world. 

This makes it hard to plan the day. "

- E. B. White 

 

"Hospitality

is a form of worship."

  The Talmud 

" You can't punish yourself into change.

You can't whip yourself into shape. 

But you can love yourself into well-being. "

 Susan Skye 

" Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,'

thought Alice;

'but a grin without a cat!

It's the most curious thing 

I ever saw in my life! "

Alice in Wonderland 

by

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 

under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll

 > < } } ( ° >


Today an ancient people
celebrates
the dawn of a new year.

It is the Hebrew year
5772-

 "L'shanah tovah"

means:

"May you be inscribed and sealed

for a good year." 





      

 Thank you for visiting today.

Your comments are appreciated!

       Warmly, cloudia

 

Ann Dunham - Mother of our President

A L O H A !

" “We read to know we are not alone.” 

C.S. Lewis

 

 

 

 

" A lot of parents pack up their troubles

and send them off to summer camp.  "


Raymond Duncan

History is, strictly speaking,

the study of questions; 

the study of answers 

belongs to anthropology and sociology.  "

W. H. Auden 

 

 

 

 

" Anthropology

is the most humanistic of the sciences 

and the most scientific 

of the humanities.  "

Alfred L. Kroeber

" Anthropology is the science

which tells us that people are the same

the whole world over - 

except when they are different.  "
Nancy Banks Smith

President Barack Obama's mother,

Stanley Ann Dunham,

accomplished significant work as an anthropologist

when she and young Barack lived in Indonesia.

Last Sunday, at the East-West Center

here in Honolulu,

an exhibit opened which includes

photographs of Dunham

which were never displayed publicly before.

The exhibit is called:

"Through Her Eyes:

Ann Dunham's Field Work In Indonesia."

On display are also Indonesian crafts

and art indicative of the young scholar/mother's

life and work.

The photos are mostly non-professional 'fieldwork'

shot by colleagues working alongside her.

Here is a look into her pioneering work

among laboring Indonesian people,

including masters of various indigenous crafts.

Some of the crafts on display

were even collected by Dunham herself.

Though an academic anthropologist,

she hoped that her scholarship would make a difference in the lives of the people she came to like and admire.

Dunham had met Indonesian scholar
Lolo Soetoro

at the same East-West Center

while both were students
at the University of Hawaii.

They married in Hawaii in 1965.

Soetoro is the father of the President's sister,

Maya Soetoro Ing

Young Barack attended kindergarten

from 1966 to 1967 at Noelani Elementary School

near the University campus here in Honolulu.

Soetoro, a geographer,
returned to Indonesia in 1966,

to help map Western New Guinea
for the Indonesian government.

Dunham and her son
lived with her parents in Honolulu

(where young Barack had been born

at Kapiolani Hospital)

while she completed her studies
at the University of Hawaii.

She earned her B.A. in anthropology in 1967.

( The young mother had filed for divorce

from her estranged husband, Barack Obama Sr.

In January 1964. Barack senior had left Hawaii

in June 1962.)

In 1967, Dunham and her six-year-old son,
our future President,

moved to Jakarta to rejoin Soetoro. 

There Dunham taught English

and was an assistant director of the Lembaga Persahabatan Indonesia Amerika (LIA)

–the Indonesia-America Friendship Institute–which was subsidized by U.S. government.

Young Obama attended the Indonesian-language Santo Fransiskus Asisi

(St. Francis of Assisi) Catholic School around the corner 

from their house for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade.

The exhibit on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, 

will be on display until January, 

which includes the time when the APEC conference

will be meeting virtually under my window

at the Hawaii Convention Center in early November.

Thanks so much for visiting!

kindly leave your comment

   Warmly, cloudai

Your Stuff - My Stuff

A L O H A !

"Where your talents

and the needs of the world meet,

lies your calling." 

Aristotle

" Give me health and a day, 

and I will make the pomp of emperors 

ridiculous. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson

These are ukuleles. Isn't the little banjo-uke cute?

" A painter paints pictures on canvas.

But musicians paint their pictures 

on silence.  "

Leopold Stokowski

" Do not anticipate trouble,

or worry about what may never happen.

Keep in the sunlight. "

Benjamin Franklin

They told us kids,

that if we dug a hole deep enough

we could get to China.

Look, someone DID it!

" To be humble to superiors

is duty,

to equals courtesy,

to inferiors 

nobleness. "

Benjamin Franklin

The hardest thing for me

in day to day life

is my tendancy to be affected

by the emotions

of people around me.

Making their stuff - into my stuff.

Of course this is not unique to me,

Psychologists call it:

"Emotional Contagion"

which makes a frown or smile

akin to a sneeze or cough.

Others are entitled to their moods of course,

it's not my job to assess & uplift everyone I meet-

that would be presumptious.

One never knows what another is going through.

Kinda shallow to joke with someone who is mourning,

eh?

I don't want to 'kill with kindness'

or impose judgement or expectation on others.

All we can do, is to love them,

while respecting them

and their emotions

enough

to let them be.

Jollity & Jocularity can have a pushy edge

to them

at the wrong time. 

Jesus & Buddha weren't back-slappers.

They embodied an 'openness' to others

that invited without imposing.

Kwan Yin, Jesus & Buddha

had welcoming, gentle smiles.

I try to be like that too.

Quietly caring-

and blessing others

on their way.

It is their way, after all

" Rejoice with those who rejoice, 

weep with those who weep. "

Romans 12:15 ESV

        Thanks for sharing with us here!  Warmly, cloudia

Is Your Home Healing or Hurting You?

A L O H A !

" Society is like a stew. 

If you don't stir it up every once in a while

then a layer of scum

floats to the top. "

 Edward Abbey

" All my life through, 

the new sights of Nature

made me rejoice like a child. "

Marie Curie

" Health is the thing 

that makes you feel

that now

is the best time of the year. "

Franklin P. Adams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" To get rich never risk your health.

For it is the truth

that health is the wealth

of wealth.
Richard Baker

" Health is the greatest gift,

contentment the greatest wealth,

faithfulness the best relationship. 

Buddha

 > < } } ( ° >

On my morning walk,

a few days after moving ashore

(after 20 years on our boat)

I noticed something interesting:

Where did my morning stiffness go?

I always suspected that living on the water

wasn't really healthy,

the confinement alone

is akin to enforced bed rest.

You sit in one spot,

and move (at best)

a few feet away-

and back.

My (blog invisible) husband

experienced the same thing!

Where did morning's aches GO?

I'm remembering what it's like

to have a kitchen,

flush bathroom,

a real bed - not a 'bunk'

room to breathe!

So it got me thinking:

When is a home

bad for your health?

Is there radon, or pollution?

Are the neighbors - or extreme weather

stressful?

What about the local economy?

Are you financially over-extended

to pay for it?

Or is it SO modest

that you feel jailed

and held back?

(Formerly  Boat) Kitty

is begging for less treats.

I've noticed a slackening

in some of my own cravings too.

I feel upbeat,

healthy and young here.

Is YOUR home healing

or hurting

Y O U?

Makes you wonder.