Roy’s Sunday Letter for September 8, 2024
** My Santa Fe friend, Roger, introduced me to the important role of Creating an Experience. The Experience could be in car shopping, at Costco or the fast-growing local taco shop. Yet, the rapid expansion of parking reserved for Curbside Pick-up, Uber Eats, along with zooming, ATM and fast-food lanes, limits our experience of each other, of what it is to park, walk into the store, shop, and worship together. By selecting our choices of lettuce next to each other at the market, asking our wait staff “What is that?” as a plate of food is delivered to a nearby table, saying thank you to a cashier or wishing she/he to “Have a good day” add to our daily life experiences.
It is the experience of moving around each other in aisles, saying hello to strangers in a restaurant, or comforting a weary mother struggling with a crying child at the end of an already long day. All of this is more important than remaining distant and removed by all the easier choices of Curbside, Uber or Zoom.
“In my best world there would be as many public libraries and reading rooms as there are Starbucks.” Henry Rollins, Singer and Artist
- Of the 393 million guns now in America, 98% are in the hands and homes of citizens, or 120 guns per American citizen. There have been 45 school-based shootings thus far in 2024 (K-college)
** The Indigenous Matses communities of tribes in the Peru and Brazil were first discovered in the rainforests of Peru and Brazil in 1969. While seldom seen even today, the Matses act as guardians of the rain forests, standing against the logging, crop planting, and deforestation of an irreplicable environment. The Matses now strengthen the education and intergenerational transmission from elders to youth through publishing books with the images and language of the Matses, as well as the apps and mobile phones preferred by the young.
A Face Book Post: A teacher is standing behind a student, sitting before a table with a book on it. The teacher says, “Go ahead, open it there is no password.“
- We have 4 friends attending a weekend conference at Mo Ranch Presbyterian (below Austin). A weekend of listening, learning, and sharing. The conference title, “Grace, Gravity & Getting Old,” is based upon Parker Palmer’s insightful book, “On the Brink of Everything.” Aging can bring the unavoidable challenges of health, loss of friends and family, and daily life limitations. Aging can also provide the opportunity to deepen relationships, a time to write memoir, journal about your life, and to explore the experiences and events of faith and service to others.
Roy, recommending Parker Pamer to all!
Getting old has been a great experience. Being old is still good, though it has its challenges. A new phase of life has begun.
and not to forget new opportunities.
some come easily and others are developed over time with courage and determination to matter…..keeping at it as are you.
Roy
A key component to the experience is interacting with people, not just with texts and emails. They fail to capture important information about the spirit of the other. Highly recommend telephone calls or In-person conversations
Yes and Yeas again.
You are adding to my list for the next Sunday Letter.
You add to my life in beautuful ways……Roy
You always brighten my Sunday morning read, Roy. I think back on my teaching days where the only drills we had were fire drills, children today know other drills , someone locks the door, another child pulls the shades, the children know where to go in the room to stay hidden as far out of sight as possible and the teacher stands in front of them like a sentry protecting their charges; this should not be happening in a civilized world. I am not aging well at the moment.
Our challenge of balancing the beauty and th e ugly more and more of a challenge.
I am making changes in who/where I watch, read, and liste n. More on all that next Sunday Letter.
There a secrets, one of a kind moments in this world that are waiting to be found. Viewing a peaceful magnificent Bald Eagle overhead in a beautiful tree and it’s mate fishing in the lake and the viewers whispering so as not to disturb the amazing moment set steadfast in the soul for a lifetime.
Yes and Yes again….
How is it that we Americans have allowed “The right to bear arms” to become the way we shoot our children and families. Our Crisis Response Canine and Officer in
GA were deployed to Atlanta.
Of course you did
Tis who you are; tis who ADW is in all ways.
FaceBook: No child will want to die for your 2ns amendment right ….
Roy
Thanks for the experience reminder and how you fully brought it into our daily practice of living. It can be an experience in nature, like the rising and setting of the sun. Very powerfully it is with people. I was in Wisconsin this past weekend and had the opportunity to interact with family, friends and students at my Alma Mater. There is no substitute for human interactions and digital methods, while efficient, will never replace a hug or a smile or a laugh. Thanks for the reminder, Roy. Experiences are the real juice of life.
My morning musings brought this one: “Everyone will be healthier and whole is they will walk and sit in nature for 20 minutes a day. And if you are to busy for 20 minutes, then do so for an hour.” I have not been doing so……I will today, and tomorrow as well. In all this together. Roy