First meeting took place last night.  Of the nine people enrolled, two were no-shows, three cancelled in the last minute, and one person I’d never met, Chris, friend of Sequoia, took part.  That made five of us.  The last minute cancellations had me discouraged, especially since they consisted of three preferred members, and after I’d spent alot of time organizing, preparing the session on Wendell Berry, cleaning house and setting up refreshments.  Nevertheless I felt exhilirated throughout the two hours and afterward.  My personal intention to share some of my teaching, scholarship, and personal history with beloved City Farm colleagues was fulfilled. And  it was unexpectedly enhanced by the presence of Chris a Navy Veteran, outdoor enthusiast, Diablo Canyon Supervisor, who had done the homework with interest and care.  Most enjoyable for me, still the inveterate English teacher, were the moments of close reading when hidden meanings and patterns of the words suddenly came to light through group scrutiny.  There’s hope that the sessions will continue.

Copied below are some preparatory documents. Read the rest of this entry »

March 14, 2026

Yesterday included figuring out how to get text of Fado songs in Apple music and then how to translate the sung lyrics into English.  A long awkward googling session which ended up just starting Google translate, clicking mike icon, and seeing them appear as sung.

Installed small signs for Engtanglement and River of Wood.  Met Lucas at Creek at noon and we planned college corps session to cut big euc logs for swing risers and plan cutting of prominent dead willow tree.  He showed up with large Stihl gas chainsaw Allie gave him for his birthday.

Accomplished both, rendering Zunga complete

While I saw Dr. Devine to set up cortisone shot for knees, Claire organized birthday party at octagon table

In attendance were Claire, Allie, Lucas, Ian, Jan and me.  A great time.

I had Apple Music’s selection of Leonard Cohen songs on my earbuds during last night’s Physical Therapy exercises. Afterwards I was prompted to check out the Dharma talk on Cohen I’d given twelve years ago.  Rather than searching the blog index, I entered the title into Google.  On a whim, I clicked “AI Mode” and found:

Steven Marx is an English professor and scholar who has extensively written about and explored the Buddhist themes in the life and work of Leonard Cohen.

Marx highlights how Cohen’s spiritual journey mirrors those of other North American “renegade” writers like Henry David Thoreau and Jack Kerouac, who combined a longing for transcendence with “earthy iconoclasm”. Key insights from Marx’s analysis and Cohen’s Buddhist background include:

• Monastic Practice: Marx notes that like Thoreau at Walden or Kerouac at Desolation Peak, Cohen spent five years (1994–1999) in monastic isolation at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center.
• Ordination: Cohen was an ordained Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk, taking the Dharma name Jikan, which means “Silent One” or “The Ordinary Silence”.
• Relationship with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi: Cohen served as the personal cook and assistant to his Zen master, Sasaki Roshi, whom he viewed more as a deep, enigmatic friend than a strictly idealized master.
• Theological Synthesis: Marx emphasizes that Cohen did not abandon his Jewish roots for Buddhism; instead, he remained a “Jewish Buddhist monk,” using Zen practice to refine his creative inspiration and offer refuge from secular distractions.
• Literary Connections: In his “Dharma Talks,” Marx compares Cohen’s “cold and broken hallelujah” to traditional Buddhist reflections on suffering (Dukkha) and the “broken” nature of existence.

At the bottom of this summary, I was asked: “Would you like to explore Steven Marx’s specific essays on Leonard Cohen, or are you interested in Cohen’s other religious influences?” I typed in “specific essays,” producing this: Read the rest of this entry »

I received a text message on January 8 from Mary, the Director of People’s Kitchen, asking if I could help serve the noon meal at the Homeless Shelter. I’d volunteered to go on December25, looking for something worthwhile to do the day after our Christmas Eve family gift exchange, but it was booked, and I’d ended up venturing to invite a co-worker who said she was alone and a random bunch of friends and neighbors over for a last minute get together which turned out unexpectedly festive.

Early for the appointment at the shelter, I decided to stop for a few minutes at the SLO Cemetery nearby.  Passing gravestones inscribed with allegories of the soul’s ascent, I approached our unmarked green burial plots where  a great blue heron stood motionless on the wrinkled lawn stalking gophers. I watched at a distance, clicking  with my camera phone, and then walked slowly closer to see it arise.

Basic Information

Project Title: Agro-Ecological Land Improvement Project on a 1.5 Acre City owned property newly added to the long-term lease held by the licensed non-profit City Farm SLO.

Location (County and Nearest City): San Luis Obispo County, City of San Luis Obispo

Distance to nearest city or census designated place: City of San Luis Obispo, Incorporated Place 68154, Census Tract 113
Located within a priority population:  ? Y ?x N [Census tract number]

Project Funding

CFCP Request Amount: $75,000

$ Match Amount: $7500 from City of San Luis Obispo

Status of Match: Confirmed by attached letter

Read the rest of this entry »

First Redbud

Aunt Gabi at 100

The last poem in Margaret Atwood’s new collection The Paper Boat

Sitting on my new couch, purchased to replace the three year old futon which got too stiff and slanted for my old back, I was reading Margaret Atwood’s recent memoir of this name, hard to put down because of 1) its transparent prose style 2) the out-loud laughs its humor continually elicited 3) my love for  her books as they appeared during the 1970’s when we were newcomers to Canada and 4) its references to people I had met (Bev Howard Gibbon) and places I had been or been involved with (North Bay, Camp White Pine) and later, the Northrop Frye archive at the University of Toronto.

But when I came across her mention of an obscure place not in Canada but in Provence, France, where she’d stayed in 1971, I stopped reading and started remembering:

Read the rest of this entry »

Nocturia is defined by the International Continence Society (ICS) as “the complaint that the individual has to wake at night one or more times for voiding (i.e., to urinate)”.^[1] The term is derived from Latin nox – “night”, and Greek – “urine”…Nocturia becomes more common with age. –Wikipedia

I dont remember when I started experiencing this, probably in my early seventies.  The urologist prescribed Flomax, first once then later twice a day.  That reduced waking up to pee to once a night.  A year or so ago, when it got more often she prescribed Myrbetrick and told me to do the onerous job of keeping a urination diary which I refused.  About four months ago I started waking up even more frequently and she told me to stop drinking liquids after 6 p.m. and to cut back coffee and cut out alcohol.  Even more onerous but I did that. It didnt help much.  Then I went to the acupuncturist who applied needles around my bladder every two weeks and told me to gradually stop taking the drugs, which helped more than taking them.  Then I went for physical therapy for knees and shoulders which were preventing me from walking and chainsawing. Doing the exercises, which included 30 squeezes of the glutes, helped more than anything else.  Sometimes now I’m able to go only once, but the average is twice, which I consider tolerable, sometimes it’s still up to three or four.  This makes the formerly unnoticeable activity of an organ, which in another function has taken disproportionate attention, the focus of nightly concern.

Poophoria: The pleasant, full-body sensation after a large bowel movement is a physiological response primarily driven by the vagus and pudendal nerves, along with the release of endorphins and the relief of physical and psychological discomfort” –Google AI

I became fully aware of this around the same time that I started experiencing Nocturia, and over time the intensity of the sensation and my appreciation of it has steadily increased, offsetting the tribulation of the other excretory process. Once more the body has its own agenda, most prominent now with age.

This scholarly article from 1999 quotes and analyses the personal acknowledgements in the Preface of Youth Against Age, the 1985 book version of my dissertation, which was completed 1981, fifteen years after it was started. The relevant passage is found on page 265 of the article.