Prayer Beads and RosaryMaybe next year the Gospel sayings “The Last Shall Be First” and “The Least Shall be the Greatest” will come true. On this last day of the year I know it was not true for a friend of mine that needed medication and does not have insurance and money. We needed to get up very early to wait in line for an appointment to wait for a doctor and finally to wait for the medication. Reflecting while waiting in lines like this one I have noticed the poorer you are the longer you wait. The less you have, no matter your need, the more you wait.
Barren Beauty - Sunday, December 30, 2007
Barren BeautyThe picture I forgot yesterday is now here today. Actually it is a three or four tree picture. The tree branches in the foreground are of a tree in the beginning of my yard or garden. The one over the hump of snow and ground (worm depository) is the small one that shades the worms in the summer, and in the background you can see the trunk of the big tree that blocks the south sun on the garden. This is three trees (unless you count the pine bushes in the picture as a tree). Three or four, they are all pretty with the snow-covered branches. One can find beauty even in the barren trees.
Less We Forget - Saturday, December 29, 2007
Less We ForgetShoveling the driveway today I noticed how beautiful the barren trees were with the branches covered with snow. The small tree over the large worm depository pile made for a good picture, especially since in the background you could see the very large tree in the yard behind mine. The small tree I appreciate in the summer since it keeps the worm depository pile shaded for the worms. The large tree I do not appreciate since it significantly blocks the sun from the south to radiate on the garden for a good part of the day. However, once I finished shoveling and came in the house I forgot about the beauty of the snow-covered trees and thus took no pictures. So unless the snow stays on the trees till tomorrow there will be no picture this time around.
Wiki Food - Friday, December 28, 2007
Kale and HerbsThe snow today is deeper than expected. The snow this year is more than expected. The snow will melt and run deep into the ground making it more fertile for next year’s crop. Snow and rainwater is life giving, full of living organisms not of chemicals.
Today I was reading in the book “Earth Democracy” by Vandana Shiva how so much of the food we eat and export in the USA is full of unhealthy chemicals. Some countries have tried to keep this unhealthy food from its people but the USA has been dominant in forcing its unhealthy ways of eating on the world. Growing Renewable Affordable Food (GRAF?) is needed everywhere in the world, but most especially in the USA — the biggest promoter of chemically produced food.
I try to buy and cook healthy food but it is difficult. Trying to avoid food from China and chemically enhanced food while purchasing and cooking affordable, organic food is very hard. Organic food, for the most part, is expensive, and lots of it that is affordable is fruits and vegetables that our eating habits do not value sometimes as much as starch and meat items. But we can try, and having a Growing Power Home Garden helps.
Hope - Thursday, December 27, 2007
The young man we prayed for today at the Holy Ground Memorial Prayer Vigil was Frankie Hope. He was only 18 when he was shot and killed a few nights ago near his home. Family members described him as a quiet young man who was very good with young children. His last name, Hope, is unusual. It made me think “what hope is there in life when so many young men in our city are dying senseless deaths?” There was only a very brief mention in the newspaper the other day of his death. His name was not even mentioned. He was not a great leader like the former Prime Minister Bhutto who died today. He was like so many of the other 120 or so homicide victims in Milwaukee this year, just another number. Perhaps if Mr. Hope and the many other homicide victims of Milwaukee had gotten just a bit of the press coverage given to famous persons that are killed, there would be more hope of ending the violence. For when a person is killed that we know, publicly or personally, it makes a difference in how we respond. Each life is just as precious as any other human life, be they a politician or vagrant, white or black, rich or poor. It is in this belief, of the sacredness of all life, that rests my hope, the hope that we all can realize how we are all brother and sisters, connected to each other. When persons know and love each other there is hope that there will be no violence between them.
Many Years Ago - Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The darkness always follows the light just as the light overcomes the darkness.
Many years ago I heard a Chaldean Bishop from Baghdad speak at Marquette University, begging the US not to invade Iraq. He predicted bloodshed and suffering for these Roman Catholics Christians. He admitted life was not good under Saddam, but at least there was a freedom of religion in the then secular state of Iraq. He feared that an invasion by the USA would lead to a civil war in which the Christians would suffer most, in this holy land in which the seeds of human life are thought to have begun. Over the years, since the start of the war in Iraq, I am reminded repeatedly how true his prediction was and is. Someone sent me an article from the New York Times today that reaffirmed the great suffering of all Iraqi persons, especially Christians. At Christmas, Iraqi Christians Ask for Forgiveness, and for Peace.
Loren and JohnToday at Christmas Dinner two of the guests were the two young adults most responsible for the Growing Power Home Model Garden. Loren built the growing power box in the sunroom, the worm condo outside, and insulated the floor of the sunroom. John is the creator and maker of the five pane window inserts that have been so effective in making the sunroom into a greenhouse. Although both had been instrumental in the home model garden, until today, Christmas, they had never met. They both are very appreciated young men in our lives
Light of the WorldIn almost all faith traditions there is some sacred feast celebrating light in the dark days of winter. In my Christian faith, we believe that Jesus is the Light of the World. We believe he was born on a dark winter’s night in Palestine to Mary, a young virgin Jewish girl, and her spouse Joseph. His parents were homeless and far from their home in a small town of Nazareth. However we believe Jesus is the Son of God who is the Light of the world who shows us the way back home to God. In other traditions there are other celebrations of light, even though the days are dark. There seems to be something in all of us, like a bug in the night, that we seek the light.
Plants grow in the dark yet they grow toward the light. Plants, like us, need light to grow. The Light of the World, like the light of plants, gives us direction in which to grow. Light overcomes the darkness but without the darkness we would not know the meaning of light.
May the light of the world shine on you so you and the seeds you plant will grow from the darkness into the light of the world. We will be celebrating Christmas here at home this year with some friends. May your days be bright. The Diary of Worm will return Tuesday, Dec. 25th, the day Christians celebrate the birth of the Light of the World.
Beds or Guns? - Friday, December 21, 2007
Frederic Ozanam,
college student &
founder of the
St. Vincent De
Paul SocietyThis is the season of dying and new life. On one hand, I have heard of many deaths of loved ones, and yet we approach the celebration of God becoming a human being in Jesus. While this is season of joy there seems to be a lot of depression going around. Maybe it is the long cold winter days and maybe it is just the anticipation and desire we have approaching the Christmas giving and receiving season. During this time the garden outside remains much the same, just covered with snow. The garden inside remains growing slowly. The growing lights help but do not make up for the sunlight. A lot seems to be changing as we approach the end of this year but much remains unchanged. The poor remain poor without much, even a bed to rest on, as my wife and I have experienced in our St. Vincent De Paul calls today. And most, but not all, of us can buy food and drink for the holiday, as my son and I experienced today in our grocery shopping.
Two Mothers of Homicide VictimsToday I was at two Holy Ground prayer vigils for two young men who had died within two hours of each other a few nights ago. The mother at the first vigil was beside herself in tears but wanted to go with us to the second vigil. The two families did not know each other but met today. The mothers embraced and formed an instant bond of sorrow for sons lost. Their sons were the 120 and 121st homicide victims according to the Mothers Against Gun Violence (MAGV) 2007 Memorial Page. My heart grieved at the site of the two mothers hugging and these words came to me:
Two gunshots, two hours apart, are fired in a cold winter’s night.
The two gunshots kill two young African-American men
And pierce the heart of two mothers.
The Two mothers hug and pray.
Too much gun violence invades Milwaukee and kills more than these two young men.
Too many guns,
Where did the politicians hide the Responsible Gun Bill
That was to close a loophole in the law allowing for too many guns?
Too much politics and the killing goes on.
Gordon ZahnThis section of the site is called the “Diary of the Worm” but the web site as a whole is called “The Nonviolentworm.” The worm is a great symbol for persons in the nonviolent movement. It is one of the least of creatures, discarded and ignored by many, yet one of the most organically alive creatures with its amazing ability to consume waste and cast off organically fertile soil. The worm is a weak, defenseless creature yet it has outlasted many powerful creatures like the dinosaur. The worm is a very old creature, but it is always renewing itself. Persons of nonviolence are ready to be ignored and discarded by others, yet by persistence they can overcome. Persons of nonviolence do not fight violence with violence, yet they always overcome violence. Persons of nonviolence live in an old and rich tradition, but constantly come up with new and creative ways to express themselves. These thoughts came home to me yesterday at the funeral of Gordon Zahn.
Five Pane Inserts in SunroomIn many a posting the last four months, I have talked a lot about the window inserts for the sunroom and other applications of this low-tech energy savings method. See entries for Sept. 14th, 17th and 20th, Oct. 17th , Oct. 22nd, Oct. 27th, and Dec. 12th. Although the measurement of the savings goes on, it is time to write up the method. Like Growing Power itself, these window inserts and multi-panes involve no new technology. Storm windows, plastic coverings for the windows, and double-pane windows have been around for a long time. What makes this low-tech energy savings new is its application and affordability.
Nature is very flexible and adaptable but there are laws of nature that just are and there is no getting around them. This paradox also exists in our faith values. Many of our faith values are flexible and adaptable but there are some that are not negotiable. This paradox does not exist in army values. The army says about it’s values that they are primary over faith values and nonnegotiable. Interesting enough when some of us approached Marquette, a Catholic University about teaching Army values which are contrary to Christian values the President of the School said once again that the teaching of these values on campus are not negotiable. Simply said, laws of nature and values of our religious faiths are both flexible and firm. Values of the Military and Marquette are just firm and non-negotiable. The principles of nature and faith seems to have a common bond like the principles of the military and this Jesuit Catholic University have a bond. I will take the paradox of nature and faith, flexible and yet firm over the absolutism of the military and Marquette, just firm and non-negotiable.
Thomas Merton(This posting is from a story told by Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk in a talk given in Alaska in 1968)
There was an old Father at Gethsemane — one of those people you get in every large community, who was regarded as sort of a funny fellow. Really he was a saint. He died a beautiful death and, after he died, everyone realized how much they loved him and admired him, even though he had consistently done all the wrong things throughout his life. He was obsessed with gardening, but he had an abbot for a long time who insisted he should do anything but gardening, on principle; it was self-will to do what you liked to do. Father Stephen, however, could not keep from gardening. He was forbidden to garden, but you would see him surreptitiously planting things. Finally, when the old abbot died and the new abbot came in [Dom James], it was tacitly understood that Father Stephen was never going to do anything except gardening, and so they put him on the list of appointments as gardener, and he just gardened from morning to night. He never came to Office, never came to anything, he just dug in his garden. He put his whole life into this and everybody sort of laughed at it. But he would do very good things — for instance, your parents might come down to see you, and you would hear a rustle in the bushes as though a moose were coming down, and Father Stephen would come rushing up with a big bouquet of flowers.
St. Francis in the Snow“Poverty is to have nothing, to wish for nothing, yet to possess all things truly in the spirit of freedom.”
The Snow kept coming today. Over 20 inches this month and they say winter has not begun. When I was young this much snow would seem normal now it seems extraordinary. Same snow but different perception of its impact. Now some news broadcast contains three weather reports. All this snow, mixed with the coffee grounds leaves and wood chips in my compost and on my soil should make for a deep rich winter for growing next spring.
Temperature Anyone?The beginning and the end of the five-pane insert story came together at a table today. We, my friend Dave, his son, John and I were at table with other family and friends today at a lunch after the funeral of a mutual friend. My friendship with Dave goes back 36 years ago when he and his two young sons lived in the flat upstairs. The friend we buried Chas was a boyhood friend of Dave’s that I had met at Dave’s second wedding about 30 years ago. At the time we were living in Madison, had two young boys ourselves and I was unemployed. Dave’s boyhood friend, Chas, a person known for his joking and laughter was present. He was selling some new direct mail product and suggested that I give it a try. I never thought of myself as a salesperson but had nothing to loose. I was good at it and at years latter ended up owning my own business and having Chas work for me. This business was profitable and made it possible in 1995, after selling it, for me to have enough money in savings to work in areas of ministry that I really wanted to be in. Over the years I have kept in contact with Dave and at our last gathering of Dave, Chas, another friend and I, Dave had suggested a way to insulate the ceiling of my sunroom. Last summer when John, his son, moved from Madison to Milwaukee I offered him the job. He looked at the sunroom and said what I really needed is to better insulate the windows. It came up with the idea, with consultation with his dad, Dave, of building these affordable insets for each window that made my room into one with five-pane windows. His idea let me to put two sheets of clear plastic the storms on the small windows on my first floor, thus converting them into from two pane windows to four pane windows. Today at the funeral lunch Dave gave me a whole bunch of inexpensive temperature gauges so I can measure the temperature everywhere in the sunroom and thus figure easily the energy savings of the five-pane window inserts. So this is the short story of how choices of friends and jobs made many years ago led me to this place today with this small but significant addition to this way of Growing Renewable Affordable Food GRAF?. There is more to the story but that is enough background before I focus on this new low-tech energy savings.
Warm Grounds - Thursday, December 13, 2007
Today’s Grounds HaulToday I went to the best coffee house for saving coffee grounds and discover a bonanza of grounds waiting for me. The persons working there said they would save the coffee grounds for me during the winter if I could use them and they are true to their word. Coffee grounds, even in winter, can be thrown on compost piles and worm depositories to melt with the snow in the pile and provide food and heat. When grounds (nitrogen) mix with wood chips or leaves (carbon) and some snow (water), they create heat and excellent compost. Now my yard is filled with bags of coffee grounds and buckets of wood chips, taken from the DMZ wood chip pile, and they are ready to be dumped on my present piles of compost.
Last week I was looking around Habitat for Humanity’s Resale Store, a thrift shop for home improvements, when I noticed a fluorescent four-foot light fixture for only two dollars. I did not know if it worked or not but figured for a $2 donation to Habitat for Humanity it was worth a try. Tonight I put in the fixture a couple of fluorescent bulbs I had around the house and lo and behold, let there be much more light over the box. I need to clean up the fixture, perhaps replace the bulbs someday with Gro Lights and maybe lower it, but I am happy with my buy. Every town should have and maybe has a home improvement thrift shop.
Nature is ForgivingRecently I have been reading articles about forgiveness. From the scientific and spiritual viewpoint it seems that forgiveness is important for health of mind, body and soul. Going back to nature I started looking around for forgiveness in nature and in particular in the garden. An example came up in the nightly news today. There was a story about how certain Asian Elephants are becoming endangered due to the American thirst for coffee. The American need for plenty of cheap coffee has persons clearing and planting coffee bean trees on the land of the elephants. The elephants often end up tramping the coffee bean growing area and thus are shot by the farmers. Over dinner tonight my adult son jokingly said that the elephants were trampling the coffee trees to get back at the liberals sitting around coffee houses in New York City drinking coffee and solving the problems of the world. I reminded him that elephants were too smart to do such a stupid thing but were just reclaiming their land. Elephants might not forget but they, like most things in nature, do not hold resentments and grudges. In fact the forgiving nature of the elephants was one of the reasons they were becoming extinct.
The Nonviolent Power side of the nonviolent worm domain grew today. I added some information of the death of my friend Gordon Zahn, a copy of the letter to the MU board of Trustees? and a link to the web site of my niece, professional photographer Lynn Guarino, as well as unfortunately needing to update the Mothers Against Gun Violence Memorial Web page on the Milwaukee Renaissance site. Now for balance I need tomorrow to focus on the Growing Power side of the web domain. The balance between nature (Growing Power) and spiritual (Nonviolence) makes us whole. For when we live in the ‘radical’ middle we live to the fullest.
Beloved - Sunday, December 09, 2007
Franz JagerstatterYesterday I mentioned a death of a friend. Today, from Holland, via New York and Detroit, I heard that Gordon Zahn a long time scholar and peace activist had died here in Milwaukee at a local nursing home. I had heard of Gordon but did not know him in his glory days when he was a scholar at Boston University and co-founder of Catholic Peace Fellowship and Pax Christi. I got to know him after he retired, returned to his home town of Milwaukee and moved into assisted living at the same place where he died. I would visit him when I visited some of my retired Jesuit friends who lived on another floor in the same building. In the early days of our conversations he told me about his youth and days attending Riverside High School and his experience as one of the first conscientious objectors of World War II in Milwaukee. His memory of his peace activist days was foggy at first and eventually faded away due to the dementia that accompanied his Parkinson’s disease. In fact by the time I got around to reading his most famous book “In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter”, he was asking me questions about the book. I enjoyed my visit with Gordon even the last few times, when he slept though most of our one-way conversation. These visits reminded me of my frequent visits to my father in the last year of his life when he was dying of Alzheimer’s disease. I was surprised by how much my father and Gordon could communicate even though they gradually lost the gift of language. In his last days my dad told me, without words, about his wish to die, like my mother had before him. Gordon communicated to me a strong will to live and be active although there was not much he could do besides sleep and eat. Both men were hard workers, Gordon in the intellectual world and my dad in the physical world. They seemed to me both driven by their work. Gordon lived with the dementia longer probably because his brain had been well exercised over the years. My dad was known for his ability to build, fix and make things. Once his physical ability left him his loss of mental ability really depressed him.
Some years ago when some small children told me about the cartoon show Sponge Bob, Square Pants, I watched it and found it silly. Now some years later I find myself watching it, liking it and (God forbid!) sometimes watching it by myself. The show has not changed much … what has changed is me. Besides the fact that I can now receive Nickelodeon on my TV, part of what has changed is that God has granted me some of my wish to be like a three year old. To a three year old the world is still full of mystery and awe and doing something silly can still be fun. The older children, especially in their teens, are taught that being silly or doing nothing is not so good. Being scheduled, as even now three year olds are, to do something with your time, even if it is watching TV, is better than just being silly and doing nothing as the characters in this TV show often do. There is always some story or point to each show but that is not what makes it so attractive to young children and not so liked by many parents. The simple, ridiculous, slapstick humor makes young children like it and adults dislike it. Maybe it is this generation’s “Three Stooges” show.
‘Tis the Holiday Season and I do not want to be a grouch. Buying gifts, keeping up with everyone else, materialism do not really motivate me so that side of the Holiday Season leaves me in the cold. However, it is a time of winter dying and sparks of joy and that part I enjoy. So as the days become shorter, darker and colder, I look beyond the shortest day of the year to a new year full of promise and hope. It is the season to clean up literally, like in the office and sunroom, and figuratively like in some of my tired old ways. To make room for the new, just as in the garden, one needs to clean up the present and prepare.
Shake Seeds & EatThe chirping of the birds on a tree overlooking my yard finally got to me today. So I added some more birdseed to the bird feeder. This is a new bird feeder and I really had not observed how they used it. Watching from a distance I noticed some of the birds would attack the feeder, grabbing what food they could get. Their action would shake the feeder and a group of birds would fly to the ground to pick up the fallen seeds. Then they would all head back to the tree only to repeat the sequence in a minute or two. It seems the birds consider the birdseed communal property and work together to shake and eat the seeds. The local squirrel, not to be found today, considers the feeder his private property and does not like sharing with the birds. The squirrel probably has more than enough food stored away in a nest.
Winter Waste - Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Worm Depository 12/06When I went behind my favorite coffee house today to collect grounds from garbage bin, there was only one small bag, not the numerous bags that I have come to expect. I went inside to ask for grounds. The young girl apologetically told me that the manager had told her that no one wanted coffee grounds in the winter and to throw them away and not save them in the barrel. She said that she told him there were people like me that used them even in the winter. She took my name and promised to talk to the manager abut saving them in the back as usual. I had wanted the coffee grounds to throw on the DMZ worm depository and compost pile at Dawn’s house since we had got a major load of wood chips dumped there and needed more nitrogen (grounds) to mix with them for compost. I went with my one small bag of coffee grounds to Dawn’s and still threw some wood chips, now covered with snow, on the piles. Winter Waste is just as valuable as summer waste.
I made another mistake today. In calculating the cost of the electricity heater in my sunroom I mistook the cost of electricity to be nearly $1 per KWH, rather than nearly 10 cents per KWH as it is. Also I sent a friend the draft of a letter I wrote on behalf of a number of persons about the issue of teaching military science on the Marquette University Campus. He pointed out what I already know — that I am poor in grammar and spelling (as any of you know who have read a posting here that has not been edited by Tegan Dowling). For the draft letter to Marquette University I had a religious sister who had taught for many years in school proofread and correct my mistakes. I pray and hope that Tegan corrects these postings, but for any significant writing I do make sure someone proofs and reads it. My wife, a librarian, is an excellent proofreader but she is busy these days with her library work. So I am constantly seeking proofreaders. As my friend pointed out, people discard things with spelling and grammar errors.
Misteks Make Nature BetterPutting together some pictures from the Graf Family Reunion on Flicker took much more time today than I anticipated. The learning curve for using new technology always seems to be very hard. I made many mistakes before I could send the pictures to family members correctly. This is not true for Growing Power. Learning how to grow more effectively seems to come naturally. Sure you make mistakes but even mistakes work with nature, not so with technology. In nature sometimes mistakes made things better. In terms of new technology I learned quite a while ago to learn just what you need to know. I needed to learn about Flicker to share photographs with friends and family, so it was worthwhile. However, there is a lot I do not to need to know or search on the computer and need to be strong to resist doing it.
Mountain BoysDecember started yesterday and with it came the first snow. It is a time for the ground to renew itself and for us to shovel the concrete. Like stones in the Middle East, concrete surrounds our lives. There is so much that we hardly notice it. However, the snow on the sidewalk, driveway and roads reminds of us how much of the earth we have covered with concrete. Jesus used a lot of stone imagery in the Gospel. Jesus living today might use concrete. “I am the concrete block on which the whole building rests.” Stone and concrete indicate strength and being strong. “You are my rock.” Whereas we humans are like the earth, fragile and soft. In our lives we need both, the rock and the ground to survive and grow. We need to be solid as a rock and yet as movable as the earth.
New four-pane windowEarlier I mentioned that after a windy storm one of the eight small storm windows on my first floor fell off. I decided, in putting it back up, to apply some of the low tech insulating method we used in the sunroom five-pane window inserts. Although the sunroom has not been tested yet I can tell that by adding air pockets of clear plastic in the inserts we have kept the room much warmer. I decided to use the same clear plastic insulating kits on both sides of the storm window. However, instead of using staples to strengthen the double-sided tape I used some clear cold-weather tape I had from previous years of insulating the sunroom. With the addition of two layers of plastic, my small window in the dining room went from the equivalent of a two-pane window, inside window and storm window, to a four-pane window with three air pockets of insulation. The new four-pane window certainly passed the touch test; the inside of this window is much warmer than the inside of the windows next to it with just window and storm. And the window stays clear as you can see in the picture. Since the extra two layers are on the storm I can keep them on the windows all year around, thus saving energy cost also in the summer. Now I have seven more to go.
