Wholeistic Approach

The coronavirus outbreak is part of the climate change crisis

And for the really big problems

Tackle climate crisis and poverty with zeal of Covid-19 fight, scientists urge

Being a Know--it-almost

Just posted the paragraph below on a discussion on Facebook and share it now here (I do that sort of thing a lot - lift paragraphs out of emails etc).

I grew up in Texas with fairly enlightened parents and I knew that almost everyone believed a lot of nonsense but they were mainly nice people and I knew to keep my perspective to myself - until I got older as in teenager and then more and more other things I believed I saw as being nonsense and harmful and it all started to fall away - tried to do good things like civil rights stuff and SDS but didn't really get in the grove till I became a hippie - and that was before Herb Caen coined that word. I think a pivitol moment came about when I was 19 when I read Rimbaud's "Everything we are taught is false." Oh cool - I just did a search to check my source and accuracy on that quote and got this from the late great writer Jim Harrison: "I think that I was nineteen when Rimbaud's 'Everything we are taught is false' became my modus operandi." Back to me DC - And now after a lifetime of seeking, studying the wisdom and practice of great sages, I have learned that also - Everything I teach is false.

Quora

I don't know how. I didn't ask for it, but I get a daily email from Quora with Q & A about various topics. It obviously has an algorhythm tuned into me because there are frequent questions about Indonesia. The answers tend to be good too, knowledgable. Today there was this fascinating question up top. I glance at them and usually just delete but this one got me. There are others below but I usually don't look further - read it quick and delete.

What are some recent archaeological discoveries that rewrite ancient history?

Day After Nyepi Bloodbath

Last night in the total dark of Nyepi (see yesterday's post) getting up to pee, slipped on the Muslim prayer rug at the side of the bed (which I've stepped on for six years no problem), fell and hit my head and ear hard on the corner of the night table by the bed. I crawled to the bathroom as I thought it unwise to stand up but walked back to bed. I thought I might have punctured the right eardrum (after having punctured the left one last fall which took months of not swimming to hear) because I felt liquid - half asleep. Woke up at 5:30am - still dark, and realized the pillow and sheet and my tee shirt were all wet. Still thought it was ear fluid like had happened before.  Walked to the bathroom, turned on the light, and - gosh - I was bleeding - I'd been bleeding for hours.

Nyepi!

It's Nyepi. A day and night in the dark for fasting and mediation and it's illegal to go out and there are sentries who can catch you and herd you back home and arrest you if you resist. Only place in the world where the airport closes. The airport doesn't have a lot a lot traffic these days anyway but, living a half hour from it, I know there are some flights. I can hear one now - writing this the day before Nyepi. My favorite on Nyepi is to go out and look at the stars. Where we lived the first three years here there was a nice big swimming pool at the hotel next door we could use and it was a walk straight out of the door for about fifty feet.

Bali Report

I am pretty cut off from almost everyone now. My wife just left for America for six weeks and might not be back then. Her return flight is already canceled. Whenever she leaves I become a sort of hermit and stay home and work which is what I do when she's here too but with her I go out some. But now it's super hermit. House cleaner still comes. I love her and would miss her and she's got alcohol and water spray bottles around and wipes stuff off and we chat a little while she's here three times a week - in Indonesian - which is one of my favorite things to do. She brings fruit and flowers. I go to the beach with our doggy - it's pretty bare there now but even when it's busy it isn't that full of people. Pretty quite here. Much of Bali is usually a big traffic jam and now I hear it's the tourist, expat heavy places that are the quietest, that elsewhere it's closer to normal. Not much virus yet but I'm worried they'll be hit hard because people here don't tend to take anything seriously unless it's falling on their head. What's doing that now is that tourists can't get in so easy - no visa on arrival. Need a visa from a consulate or embassy. Poor planning. Live for today. Most people have little or no savings. It's mainly shut down. Bali's economy is 80% tourism. This will be far worse than after the bombings in 2002 and 3 because tourism grew little by little after that. There were many suicides then. I got a report from a neighbor yesterday who'd been out doing errands. She said everything's open, that the tourist places are almost empty but that the local traffic etc is pretty much the same. She said there were long lines at Immigration. I pray for Bali. And for you and yours - and please don't ask to whom - there is no whom in my view.