Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
–William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)
April 29, 2015
April 28, 2015
April 26, 2015
Easy as Pie to Make a Donation to Help Nepali Earthquake Victims
Take a short moment today to make a donation to Oxfam America to help the many earthquake vicitms in Nepal.
If you prefer to go old school mail your check, payable to “Oxfam America,” to:
Oxfam America
Nepal Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund
226 Causeway Street, 5th Fl
Boston, MA 02114
April 25, 2015
Randy Pausch: On Time Management
Many know Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon University professor, for his Last Lecture about how to accomplish your childhood dreams that went viral years ago. He had pancreatic cancer and wanted to leave a legacy for his children and indeed he did. It also became a book.
His lecture on time management is a brilliant and everyone should take time to listen to his humor filled talk on how to keep things moving and systems that have worked for him, including learning to say “no.”
April 24, 2015
Wanda Says Do It
If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing,
if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.
~Wanda Sykes
April 21, 2015
April 18, 2015
How Many Times Removed?
Visiting with a neighbor yesterday she remarked she had a “third cousin” working on a project for her and as we walked away the question arose among us, ‘what is this third cousin’ business?
Many other languages have ways to distinguish father’s brother, mother’s brother, and more complete ways to sort these family tree branches. Here’s a great illustration that shows the story we were trying to comprehend on the walk home:
A family tree with the various branches and removals
April 17, 2015
Getting Comfortable with Life’s End
I was alerted to the documentary Consider the Conversation and that it would be shown on many public broadcasting stations. It was not going to be shown in my area and so I bought one to give to the local Compassion and Choices chapter to make available to their volunteers. It a terrific film and would make for great family viewing, here is a short but powerful three minute clip from YouTube that will give you a taste of the power of this film about a life passage rarely spoken of in our culture. Seattle neurologist and neuro-oncologist Dr. Lynne P. Taylor has written a powerful piece in a professional publication about her work with the Washington State Death with Dignity Law. Also worth reading is the New York Times article: Good Short Life by Dudley Clendinen. Choosing When to Go, the article about Maine resident Norman Morse, is quite intelligent. It does incorrectly state that Oregon is the only state with a Death with Dignity Law that allows physician aid in dying, when so does Washington and Montana. The people of Maine had always been strongly independent and Morse states a strong case for why he should be able to end his life when he thinks it should be over stressing once again quality over quantity. These videos and articles should be shared to make us all more comfortable with all parts of our lives even the end.
April 15, 2015
One Person Can Make a Difference: Kim Bogucki
What do some police officers do with their spare time? Some more than you might imagine, you have already read here about Detective Bouldin’s Chess Club.
Well Seattle Police Detective Kim Bogucki is a co-founder (with Kathlyn Horan and former WCCW inmate Renata Abramson) of the IF Project.
She tells in this TEDx presentation of the $47,000+ a year it costs to keep prisoners locked up in Washington State and how her work helps people in prison to tell their stories to discourage others to enter that same pathway. She encourages us all to mentor young people, to give a felon a job, a place to live and a chance.
From IF Project’s website:
“We are a unique collaboration of formerly and currently incarcerated adults working together with law enforcement personnel to affect change for those who are facing issues and challenges regarding incarceration and recidivism. Our work is built upon — and inspired by — these people sharing their personal experiences surrounding the issues of incarceration.
This project is based on the question:
If there was something someone could have said or done that would have changed the path that led you here, what would it have been?
“If someone would have told me I was relevant…”
“If someone would have cared about me to console me…”
“If I would have met someone that has been where I have been to share their mistakes”
What the IF project allows us, is a highly unusual but greatly needed path for collaboration as it brings together inmates and law enforcement in an unprecedented manner. Officer Bogucki’s alliance with the inmates provides a break through to discover the real reasons behind our system of mass incarceration and access to the personal stories and intimate struggles that are leading people down this dead end path. We watch as she offers them access into a new world and they discover their ability to change, to heal and to find forgiveness – both from society and for themselves.
We provide ongoing support and education to the inmates who participate in the project, we offer monthly meetings/trainings inside the prison. The monthly topics are chosen by the inmates and can include domestic violence, healthy relationships, sexual assault and abuse, child abuse, parenting, and gang violence.
To support their project click here.
April 13, 2015
National Health Care Decision Day: April 16th
If you are reading this you no longer look like the baby in this picture, life passes quickly, and we are all rushing about putting off health care papers that may be vitally important for our closest friends and family.
April 16th has been set aside as National Health Care Decisions Day.
We are all going to die and in our death denying culture in the US it can be hard to muster up the energy to face getting your affairs in order.
Only a small percentage of Americans have take time out to write up a will or update a will made years ago, maybe when you married or had your first offspring. Many who have gotten a will together have one that hasn’t been updated or may not include your wishes about medical intervention. You hear tales of court cases where a divorced mate never bothered to update their will or insurance when they remarried leaving their wealth to the ex.
Compassion and Choices of Washington has put together some marvelous free tools to help you and your family and friends to detail your values and even provides a little quiz to make sure that when the conversation has been properly understood for those involved.
Just a click away is their Values Worksheet to help you rate your most important wished 1-5. This is a great way to begin a conversation with your family and friends and make clear what is most important to you and what is not. No matter what your feelings about end of life choice this is a useful straight forward tool.
After filling out the Values Worksheet and taking time to discuss the finer points you should have your mate or health care agent fill out the Health Care Decisions IQ Test
If you each fill it out you will be certain that you are totally understanding the others wishes or know that the conversation isn’t concluded.
If you find these resources helpful slip a check in the mail for them to continue offering these services for free to all, they rely on donations to keep their agency going.
Watching the documentary Consider the Conversation will also spark an open discussion and make you aware that it is important no matter what your age, religion, gender or race. Buy a copy to support the filmmakers and show it at your next family gathering, or community club it is important we not keep out heads in the sand around issues of choice.
Journalist Ellen Goodman has put together this site that may be of interest, The Conversation Project.
We might all hope that we just die in our sleep but that chance is not likely and your family will be so much more at ease to know they have done just what you wanted as detailed by your own writing.
Just do it!
The Curious Autodidact 
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