And I’d run across any number of eye-opening books – perhaps starting with Pierce Howard’s thousand page The Owner’s Manual for The Brain.  This book – reading parts of it several times and taking about twenty pages of notes – pointed me to Thomas Armstrong’s 7 Kinds of Smart – which drew on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence work.  My Brain book also pointed me to Dan Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence.

Social Intelligence

I’ve now worked my way two-thirds through Dan Goleman’s newer book, Social Intelligence, and I’ve realized that I was wrong.  This has been an amazingly eye-opening and revealing reading experience.

I had already learned that I was lacking a dismaying array of emotional skills and understanding.  Now I was learning – coming to understand – that my lack of social skills is one more super massive liability.

Mark Pesce is an expert in social media.  In a talk he gave at the Personal Democracy Forum – titled “Hyperpolitics (American Style)” – he said, “Sociability has always been the cornerstone to human effectiveness. Being social has always been the best way to get ahead.“

Kelly Lambert, in her new book Lifting Depression, in chapter 6 “Our Social Brains,” wrote, “Researchers reported that the feeling of loneliness was ‘the single most important predictor of psychological distress …’”

So I don’t think that my “super massive liability” above is hyperbole.

I find that Dan Goleman’s books do two things for me.

They help me understand how my early years created – or contributed to – the “me” that I’m dealing with now.  They help me see that the difficulties I’m dealing with are not some murky deficiency in the core of “me.”   There were apprehensible contributors to these difficulties.  They are something that I can understand better.  They can be thought about – discussed and explored mentally.

And these difficulties can be improved.  What I can understand I can change.  At least, I can change these things some – if I don’t crash first.

The other thing that Dan Goleman’s books do for me – have done for me – is similar, but subtly different.  They’ve explained those enormous areas of emotional skills and awareness that were not available to me for all those years, but, possibly, could be available to me now.

My social experience

Take, for instance, my social skills.

I’ve been a loner – all my life.  I now see that a large part of this was due to my profound lack of self-confidence and emotional skills.  These emotional gaps were a legacy from good people who gave me what they could.  But these foundational basics were not available to them – these basics were not theirs to give.

Nor were they available to me, until quite recently.

My partner of 35 years and I have been content to be hermits together.  Quite content.  The only people we associated with were circumstantial – people we worked with – people we lived near.  I see now that these associations were shallow.  When the circumstances changed, the associations evaporated.

I never saw that as a problem.  In a small way, it wasn’t.  In another, larger way, it was a huge hint – a clue – that I didn’t have the wit to see or appreciate.

Now my partner is disappearing into the fatal fog of AD. (See my blog Dementia: The Path Beyond the Tears)  I find myself alone – desperately stretching out my hand to my traveling companion of so many years, crying out to him to stay with me a little while longer, as his hand slips inexorably from my flailing fingers.

There are rough days – and not so rough days.  But the man has been good to me.  I will hold on to him – and hold on to his hand – as long as I can.  I will look into his eyes and try to read his verbal and non-verbal cues, and I will try to act on them with love and compassion – which is not easy at times.  I will use, as best I can, the skills that I’ve recently learned about from Dan Goleman in Social Intelligence.

So – looking back, my loner life – my lack of social skills and experience – is much more of a liability than I could ever have imagined.

What if?

How could my life have been different if I’d been in possession of these emotional and social resources?  I suspect that this is a tricky and slippery question.  So many decisions and outcomes could have gone another way.  It’s impossible to calculate what might have been different.

Then I look back to another crossroad – another path not taken.

In 2002, my mainframe application development and support job was reorganized away.  What if I had managed to somehow find a job back then?

Two ideas occur to me.  One: I would have continued to work for people – and with people – and I would still have been working without those basic emotional and social skills.  I shudder to think what my prospects for success might have been.

Two: I suspect that on that path, I would not have found the resources or the motivation to do the reading – to make the changes for myself that I’ve been able to make on the path I did take.

It has occurred to me to wonder how I would have coped with my partner’s AD – if I had taken that other road.  There’s a scary thought.

I occasionally wonder whether I’d have been better off if I had found that other path – found a job – back then.  Perhaps I would now be employed and solvent.  And perhaps not.

Would I have been better off?  I’m not sure.  But I suspect not.

And so …

During this post job-reorganization period of exploration and discovery, I’ve changed – a lot.  I have found gorgeous gems of literature and scholarship and personal growth.

I wonder whether I would have appreciated before, as I now find it sublimely beautiful, the lyrics from Les Misérables, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

Social Intelligence – at last.

Better late than never.

Before computers, problems and decisions could be worked out with pen and paper.

A computer gives us more powerful and flexible tools.

Austhink — bCisive

Austhink – in Melbourne, Australia – has developed a decision and argument mapping tool called bCisive.  The program provides a flexible and easy to use ribbon user interface, so you can start with a problem, a decision, or other challenge, and then develop a map (visual image) of your thinking and your process toward a resolution.

This software provides several strong benefits.  You can structure, share, and present your thoughts and process.  You can share your bMap with others, to ask for their input.  As well, there’s clear value to being able to examine historical decisions – in the context of reviewing or confirming earlier work – and in the framework of earlier work supporting and improving later work.

The front page of Austhink’s web site says, “A step beyond mind mapping, decision mapping helps businesspeople streamline the decision process, improve collaboration and move more quickly to action through greater consensus.  Argument maps help users comprehend, evaluate, produce and communicate complex reasoning on any topic, and are particularly useful in teaching and learning critical thinking and logic skills.”

The bCisive program uses the ribbon user interface that Microsoft developed for Office 2007.  When Office 2007 was being developed, observers expressed concern that the new interface would present a steep learning curve, being so dramatically different from the traditional menu and sub-menu structure, and they were alarmed that Microsoft hadn’t kept the menu structure as an option.  Early users quickly discovered that the interface was intuitive, easy to use, and that the ribbon gave them easier access to a broader and deeper range of the program’s features than the menus did.  This interface bodes well for ease of use and for future development.

The current version is 1.0.6, released on July 25, 2008.  So the product is early enough in it’s evolution that it lacks some flexibility.  As the FAQ page explains, it lacks the ability to print a map across multiple pages.  But the FAQ page offers the suggestion to segment a large map across multiple files.  And it explains that multiple bCisive files can be open at the same time.

bMap Bundle viewer is their way to package a bMap, with it’s supporting documents, so it can be viewed with a web browser.  You can share a map with someone, and they don’t need to have bCisive.  If bMap Bundle is what was used for the bCisive web site map gallery, then I wasn’t thrilled that I couldn’t navigate the map with the keyboard arrow keys.  I could click arrow icons on the interface, or I could click-and-drag the map, but the keyboard arrow keys were ignored.  The web site “User tips and tricks” page shows several “Handy keyboard shortcuts,” so there is some accommodation for keyboard users built into the product.

The web site is generous and attractive, with lots of information and images and links.  There’s also a downloadable 10-day free trial version of the program.  After 10 days, the software reverts to a reader, until it’s activated with a purchased serial number.

bCisive is a tool.  It provides the ability to record, present, and preserve a decision and argument process and rationale.  But it doesn’t remove the need for leadership, management, and judgement.

Also, knowledge of thinking and decision tools and concepts would still be invaluable.  The most powerful and usable book of tools that I know is de Bono’s Thinking Course with his PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) tool – and his APC (Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices) tool, among quite a few others.

Text Document

An alternative to bCisive – or even a supplement to bCisive – is a plain, structured, text document.  I’ve used these for years – for problem solving, planning, and myriad other uses.

I format my document with tabs evenly spaced, every quarter inch, most of the way across the page.

By indenting, to show that a point is a child of the parent point above – or indent the same, to show that a point is a peer of the point above – by using a double-period, a double hyphen, or other key combination, to visually mark the start of points – by using font attributes and blank lines (vertical white space) where helpful – I can quickly create a flexible, inexpensive, and quite effective tool for using any problem solving or decision making structure I want to use.

Just as with bCisive, knowledge of thinking and decision tools and concepts is invaluable.  de Bono’s Thinking Course, with his PMI and APC, is part of my toolkit.

A marvelously powerful tool for developing and managing multiple structured text documents in one file is TreePad. (See: “TreePad – for every kind of note“)

Comparison Summary

bCisive would make a decision making or problem solving process simpler and more visual (John Medina, in his recent book Brain Rules, says, “Vision trumps all other senses.”).  It would be more structured (bCisive automatically arranges your map); it would be easier to present, and it would be easier for multiple people to collaborate on.

A text document would be less expensive, more flexible, and more compact.  I could do nearly anything with a text document that I could do with bCisive, it could just take a bit more time and care.

So …

The idea is to use the most helpful and appropriate tool available, whether we’re talking about computer software or a concept like de Bono’s PMI – and keep the situation as simple and manageable as possible.

I’d want to have a variety of tools available to me, since different tools have different strengths and weaknesses, for different kinds of problems, or for different points in a process.

The proper tools, powerfully used, could dramatically improve the risk and stress level, and they could solidly improve an organizations success level.

Use Austhink’s bCisive, or use text documents, or use both.

I recently wrote an article about “The Beauty and Power of DVDs” – DVDs as a video medium.

Quite by chance, the next DVD I watched was one with beautiful and intriguing layers of message.  Once again, I’m bowled over by the beauty and power of DVDs.

Cider House Rules

Dr. Larch and Mr. Rose are worlds apart in their background – and in their vocabulary.  But their attitudes toward rules are nearly identical.

Dr. Larch said, “Here at St. Clouds, I try to consider, with each rule I make or break, that my first priority is an orphan’s future.”  Dr. Larch also said that, long ago, he had decided that sometimes it was the women who needed to be delivered.  And that “delivery” might include abortion, which was then against the law.

Homer Wells had difficulty with that.  Homer said that he had no argument with Dr. Larch performing them.  “All I said was I don’t want to perform abortions.”

On the other side of the story, Mr. Rose said, “You know, they ain’t our rules, Homer.  We din’ write ‘em.  I don’t see no need to read ‘em.”

White men were always making rules for Mr. Rose and his fellows, wherever they traveled.  And they didn’t trust the white man’s rules.  Mr. Rose said, “Well, someone who don’t live here made those rules.  These rules ain’t for us.  We the ones supposed to make our own rules.  And we do.  Every single day.  Ain’t that right, Homer?”

Unfortunately, Mr. Rose saw the incest prohibition as another one of white man’s rules.  He had no way to understand or appreciate the genetic risk.  It was just one more rule that he didn’t trust – and that he didn’t believe.

Of course, his love for Rose Rose was strong and protective.  Then his love crossed that fatal line, from supportive to destructive.  A line that was impossible for him to see – and impossible to avoid.

I see Mr. Rose as a victim of his circumstances, rather than as a villain.

And Homer’s emotional arc encompasses learning from Mr. Rose, and from Rose Rose, that Dr. Larch was right.  Homer starts out saying, “How about expecting people to be responsible enough to control themselves to begin with.”  Then, as Homer’s relationship with Candy deepens, he discovers that personal responsibility is a little more challenging than he had imagined.

At one point, Homer burns the “Cider House” rules in the stove.  I see this as a cinematic and figurative device showing that Homer, at that point, has accepted the necessity of breaking rules – sometimes.  As the migrant workers do.  And as Dr. Larch does.

In their correspondence, between the orphanage and the orchard, Dr. Larch writes, “You are my work of art, Homer.  Everything else has been just a job.  I don’t know if you’ve got a work of art in you.  But I know what your job is.  You’re a doctor.”  Homer replies, “I can’t replace you.  I’m sorry.”  Dr. Larch responds, “Sorry.  I’m not sorry.  Not for anything I’ve done.  I’m not even sorry that I love you.”

Dr. Larch writes, “I know what your job is.  You’re a Doctor.”  Then Mr. Rose yells, “You even know what your business is Homer?  Do ya?  Come on man, what is your business?”  Homer cries back to Mr. Rose, “I’m in the doctor business.  I can help.  That’s all I’m saying.  I can help.”

After Homer returns to St. Clouds, to follow in his father’s footsteps, nurse Angela holds up the x-ray film and asks Homer if he knows what it is.  Homer says it’s his heart.  Angela says, “No.  It’s Fuzzy’s heart.”  Homer, startled, once again realizes that his father loved him and has been helping him.

The evening of Homer’s return, just before turning out the dormitory lights, Homer reads from the last paragraph of chapter 14 of David Copperfield: “Thus I began my new life – in a new name – and with everything new about me.  I felt like one in a dream.  The remembrance of my old life was fraught with so much want of hope.  Whether it lasted for a year, or more, or less, I do not know.  I only know that it was, and ceased to be … and there I leave it.”

Charles Dickens told Homer Wells’ story, almost a century earlier.

The layers of meaning in this film by Lasse Hallström are lyrical and intriguing – and in this story – written by John Irving.  The screen play was adapted by John Irving (he won an Oscar for the adaptation).

And so …

In one of the DVD features, Lasse Hallström explains, “The Cider House Rules, I think, represent those kind of rules that are imposed on us – rules that are made by others who know very little about the circumstance of our world.  And, therefore, it’s important to oppose those rules and question them.”

I close with the comforting St. Clouds vesper, that the doctor always offered, as he turned out the light:

“Good night, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.”

This is a beautiful DVD.  And a beautiful story and film.

Do you ever wonder whether the news you hear is intentionally presented so as to keep you apprehensive, unsure, and willing, if not anxious, to support massive government spending?

Fareed Zakaria

He was described, by Marion Maneker of the New York magazine, as “one of the more influential and original voices on American foreign policy and politics.”  (“Man of the World“) (FYI: Fareed pronounces Zakaria with “Z” as in zoo and the emphasis on “ka”.)

If you want to read insightful, understandable explanations of what’s going on in the world – what’s good – and what’s not so good – with a point of view that may surprise you, you can do no better than to follow Fareed Zakaria’s articles and columns in Newsweek magazine.

His most recent article with the amazing title of “What Bush Got Right” is a typically stunning example.

He explains that Bush’s basic concept of a “global War on Terror” was “poorly thought through, badly implemented, and has produced many unintended costs that will linger for years if not decades.”

He also explains that “In the past few years, many of these policies have been modified, abandoned or reversed.”

The three page Newsweek article explores U.S. foreign policy errors and improvements all around the world.

If you ever wonder whether there could be some validity to the administration’s obdurate position on torture, Mr. Zakaria’s elegant statement is clear and easy to appreciate.  “The embrace of torture and other extralegal methods has violated America’s noblest traditions and provided little in return.”

He winds up by explaining that the next president needs to intelligently “examine the Bush administration’s policies as they stand in January 2009″ — not as they were years earlier.

He tells an O’Henry like story about the president who entered office convinced that his predecessor was all wrong.  The new president proceeded to change everything.  And his party base was ecstatic.

He also explains that the next president needs to NOT make this same error.

As I said earlier, if you want to understand what’s going on in the world, you could do no better than to read Fareed Zakaria.

The first article of his that impressed the heck out of me was titled “How to Escape the Oil Trap.”  It was another Newsweek article, in their Aug. 29 – Sept. 5, 2005 issue.  He wrote, “If I could change one thing about American foreign policy, what would it be?  The answer is easy, but it’s not something most of us think of as foreign policy.  I would adopt a serious national program geared toward energy efficiency and independence.  Reducing our dependence on oil would be the single greatest multiplier of American power in the world.”

An excellent article, and a point that I feel was spot on – and still is.

So …

If you would like to read more about Fareed Zakaria, you could start with his Wikipedia article.  In Wikipedia’s usual helpful style, there are excellent links to further reading at the bottom of the article.

I thought, once again, how much I loved DVDs and what I was able to learn from them.

Then, I wondered if I could explain clearly what I love about DVDs and why.

What and Why

I find that there are several reasons I enjoy DVDs so much:

1. I can see the film and the features so clearly,
2. I can learn so much about what the film is saying and what went into the film,
3. I can learn more about the film online – from Wikipedia and IMDb,
4. I can read the book as well – or beyond that, read books about the book,
5. I can also learn from DVDs that are specifically educational.

One thing I enjoy enormously is the clarity, and the speed and flexibility, of DVDs.  Subtleties that are contributed by actors, the director, the director of photography, the composer, and other artists, on both sides of the camera, are clearly and easily available to the viewer – like facial expressions, and eye color and movement.  These would disappear in the unclear image and rough sound of a magnetic tape.

In Irwin Winkler’s Life as a House, the expression on Sam’s face, as he watches his parents, George and Robin, dance to Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, in George’s half rebuilt house, speaks volumes.  And the expression on Peter Kimball’s face, when Robin tells him that she’s fallen in love with George again, could not be conveyed in dialog.

The original music by Christopher Young for Lasse Hallström’s Shipping News is stunning.

When I watch a DVD, I can quickly and easily replay any part where I was looking at one side of the screen and missed something on the other side.

I watch many DVDs more than once.  I find that I see or hear things on subsequent viewings that I hadn’t noticed before.  And sometimes, something learned elsewhere lends new insight.

I love to watch the DVD features – or play the film with a full-length commentary on – to learn more about what a film is saying, or about what went into a film.

In a feature with Stanley Kramer’s1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, it was pointed out how the film was as much about the Spencer Tracey – Katharine Hepburn love as it was about the interracial love between Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton.

With Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day, in one of the features, the director observed that the weather for the shoot, which began in winter and ended in spring, mirrored the emotional arc of the film beautifully.

In one of the “Appendices” accompanying Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, I learned how one of the stages in post production involved transferring the film images to digital, then a computer was used to adjust the color and highlighting, frame by frame, and then the adjusted images were transferred back to film.  The changes are invisible when watching the film, but if the before and after images are shown side by side, the effect is clear and impressive.

I also learned about how deeply Viggo Mortensen got into his character of Aragorn.  One feature told how Viggo carried his sword with him always, even off set.  And another explained how Viggo bonded with his horse, which he purchased and took with him, when the film was completed.

When I’m watching a film, I often go online to Wikipedia, and to IMDb, and print whatever pages are relevant and interesting, including cast lists and trivia.  I fold the pages and slip them into the DVD case, for future reference.

On occasion, I read the book as well.  I’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird, Shipping News, Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay, and Cold Comfort Farm.

In the case of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – wonderfully deep, modern mythology – I read several books about the books.  One essay pointed out that Frodo is a flawed hero.  In the end, he was not able to complete his task.  The essay observed that Samwise was the true hero.  He is the only character in Middle-Earth who carried the ring and then willingly parted with it.

I also deeply enjoy educational DVDs.

Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation is an examination of world history, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day, through the art produced.  Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is an examination of the cosmos and the history of scientific exploration and discovery.  Peter Jennings hosted a series called The Century (the only VHS I’m including here) which is a wonderful presentation of the history of the U.S. from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1990s.

I was never a student of history, and these three sets together are a wonderful history curriculum for me.

I have not yet seen Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man – I recently ordered it.  I understand that it is another wonderful series which has stood the test of time, and that it follows the development of human society through it’s understanding of science.  I’m looking forward to adding it to my history curriculum.

Another series I enjoy is Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers.  These talks explore the social and psychological significance of mythology, through time to now, and across myriad cultures.

These five reasons contribute to my passionate enjoyment of the beauty and power of DVDs – and to my desire to share that passion with you.

Other DVDs I enjoy

I’ll wrap up by sharing a selection of other DVDs I enjoy.  I will try to give a list that reveals the range – and the restraints – of my viewing.

Drama

An Affair to Remember, Casablanca, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Steel Magnolias, Witness for the Prosecution.

Comedy

As Good As It Gets, The First Wive’s Club, Michael Hoffman’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ken Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, Shirley Valentine.

Mel Brooks

Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Blazing Saddles, The Producers.

Mystery

Lord Peter Wimsey – both with Ian Carmichael and with Edward Petherbridge, Miss Marple with Joan Hixon, Poirot with David Suchet, Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett.

Musical

Oscar Hammerstein’s Oklahoma and Carousel, Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, Les Miserables – In Concert – The Dream Cast, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Royal Albert Hall Celebration, Peter Paul & Mary’s Carry It On.

Series

As Time Goes By, Are You Being Served? and Again!, The Good Life.

The Lookout Loft treehouse is near the edge of the forest, not far from the Pierce-du Pont House, and very near the meadow.  Along the cool, shady forest walk, you’ll discover the wheelchair accessible ramp leading up to the Lookout Loft.

As you explore this wonderful house in the woods, you’ll find that it is about the forest that surrounds it.  It’s about the managed meadow, only a hundred yards distant – through the trees.

And the Lookout Loft is very much about seeing and feeling the lovingly selected and crafted wood and ribboned metal that it’s built of.  Run your fingers over anything you can reach – surface, edge, corner – and you’ll find that it is, without exception, smooth and gentle to the touch.

The golden color and rich texture of the wood – the graceful curve of bole and branch that has been imaginatively explored and developed – all of these convey the welcoming warmth and reassuring strength of our partner and protector, the trees.

Nature’s Castles

Longwood’s treehouse project is called Nature’s Castles: The Treehouse Reimagined.

Their design shows Longwood’s commitment to protecting their trees.  The houses do not use any trees for support.  They do not impact or impede any part of any tree – root, trunk, branch, or twig.

You can see, from the plaques mounted around the railing, that Forever Young, the group that built this treehouse, uses materials local to their home state of Vermont whenever possible. The treehouses often use recovered, reclaimed, or repurposed wood, to reduce the need to cut living trees.

The Lookout Loft

The wooden walkway from the forest path leads to a small uncovered platform with a tree growing through the floor.  The deck timbers never touch this tree – or any tree.  The floor is cut so there’s a clear gap.  This gap is filled with thick, interwoven vines, to keep anyone from stepping into it.

From this small platform, a short walkway leads to a somewhat larger platform, which is enclosed and covered by an open, airy, white cedar, trellis canopy.  The trellis is not built of thin slats of wood.  It’s built of blond trunks and logs – ranging from nine inch thick upright posts, to four inch thick logs at the top – all clear of their bark, so you can see the golden texture of the wood itself.

The upright posts retain the graceful curve of the natural tree.  The roof is built mostly of straight logs.

But the structure isn’t heavy and ponderous.  For all the substance of its pieces, the canopy is light and airy.

Beyond the trellis, another walkway leads to the third, final, and largest platform, which is covered by a curving roof with wooden shingles.  Each of the trees that grow through the floor has it’s own opening through the roof.  And the edge of the roof bends gently away from a tree that’s growing close by.

Each successive platform is a little higher off the forest floor.  And from the third platform, a stairway steps back down to the forest path.

Forever Young shared how they found materials for the treehouse in the woods near their base in Burlington, Vermont.  “It is one of our favorite parts of the process to walk the forest, looking for just the right curve or twist to fit, and at the same time, to see how we might amend the design to fit unexpected but wonderful finds.”

The ramps that make the Lookout Loft wheelchair accessible reveal Forever Young’s skill in the craft of designing and building universally accessible treehouses.

An Observation Point

Several plaques, along the Lookout Loft railing, tell about the forest and about the meadow.

Three of the plaques describe the levels of the forest: the canopy, the understory, and the floor – with the understory being the first twenty feet above the floor.  Two plaques tell about “The Forest and Water” and “The Forest Walk.”

Two further plaques are about “The Meadow” and “Managing the Meadow.”  One explains that “The Meadow is a naturalized 35-acres managed and maintained as a habitat for grasses, wildflowers, butterflies, and wildlife.”  The other tells how the Longwood staff manages the Meadow to preserve the open space.

I think Longwood Gardens could benefit enormously from developing the Lookout Loft further as an educational resource for appreciating the trees and the forest more fully and deeply.

The TreeCanada web site says, “Trees and forest ecosystems are tremendously important for our environment.”  The CoolForests web site explains that “preserving our remaining old forests represents one of the easiest, cheapest, and quickest ways to reduce carbon emissions.”

A recent issue of Longwood Gardens’ “Passwords” newsletter said, “Trees are an important part of Longwood’s history and mission.”  I’d say that anyone who spends any time at all at Longwood knows that.  But it’s an idea that fades when visitors are dazzled by the flower garden walk, by the conservatory, by the fountains, or when visitors are calmed by the peace and gentle power of the Eye of Water.

It would seem a logical – indeed a vital and essential – extension of these magnificent treehouses to develop them further as ecological education and appreciation opportunities.

The Pin Foundations

All three treehouses are supported by a new technology called a “Pin Foundation,” also called a “Diamond Pier.”

The Pin Foundation web site explains that, “The precast concrete head is installed at the ground surface, and steel bearing pins are slid through holes cast in the concrete and driven into the ground using simple hand-held tools.”

There are four pins (the pins are 5-foot long pipes) angled down at about 45 degrees through each precast head.  A support post is bolted to the top of the head.  And these posts support a structure of steel beams, which in turn supports the building above.

The Lookout Loft has 34 of these Pin Foundations.

The Pin Foundations make it unnecessary to bolt the houses to any tree or to excavate and pour a concrete foundation.  They create a sturdy foundation that is not impacted by frost heave, and is unobtrusive to the tree root system.

So …

Longwood Gardens’ Nature’s Castles treehouses will be open through November 23, 2008.

If you enjoy the treehouses, there are two ways you can share your thoughts with Longwood Gardens.

There’s a card you can get at the Information Desk, near the Visitor Center entrance, and there’s a box on the desk to slip the completed card into.

You can also go to Longwood Gardens‘ web site.  On their front page, select the “Nature’s Castles” link, and on that page, click the e-mail link.

Give Longwood Gardens your feedback on their Nature’s Castles.

There is apparently some discussion about whether to retain the treehouses beyond the end of this season, and feedback from visitors will play some part in this decision.  I’ll try to find out more about this.

So – between now and November 23, visit Longwood Gardens – and play in their treehouses.

My slippery sequence of events started with me watching Joseph Campbell’s DVD series The Power of Myth once again.  In the first episode, The Hero’s Adventure, Joe Campbell and Bill Moyers talk about the mythological symbols in George Lucas’ Star Wars films.  Moyers asks Campbell about the bar scene in the first episode, Star Wars: A New Hope, where Obi-Wan and Luke go to find Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Joseph Campbell says, “… where you are is on the edge – you’re about to embark into the outlying spaces – a real adventure – this is the jumping off place …”  In The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell writes, “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder …”  Here is that threshold between the common world and the special world.

On the DVD, Campbell says, “It reminds me a little bit of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island – the atmosphere before you start off on the adventure – you’re in a sea port – and there’s the old salt – seamen who have been on the sea, and that’s their world.”

Since I enjoy Star Wars so much – especially the original trilogy – this made me want to read Treasure Island – or at least those parts Mr. Campbell was referring to.

I started out by going to a web site called Daily Lit.  They have hundreds of books – 700+ of them free.  They will send you e-mail messages with chunks of the book – for example, the first chapter of Treasure Island came in 3 installments – all of Treasure Island in 88 installments.  You can read a book in small slices of time – a book you might otherwise not find the time to read.

I used Daily Lit, over two or three days, to read Treasure Island – through chapter 3.  Each e-mail message has a link to request that the next installment be sent immediately.  I was cruising along, and over the July 4th weekend, something happened – I’ve no idea what – and I didn’t get the next installment when I requested it.

So – I went to Google to find the book online.  I tried about a dozen different sites, and I didn’t like the way any of them were set up.  Navigating from one page to the next – or from one chapter to the next – required several clicks – almost like they wanted to discourage you from using their site to read the book.  There were no straightforward, single-click, “Next Page” links – or “Next Chapter” links.

So I went looking for a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file – so I could download the book and read it on my PC.  I found one in the second page of my Google search results.  So I downloaded it and got it set up, so it was easy to use.

It was at this point, I think, that my troubles really started.  I hadn’t figured it out yet – you know – that I had a problem.  But this was the dropping off point.  The precipice.  I slipped.

Maybe I should have been more careful.  I don’t know.  We all know the ironic value of 20-20 hindsight.

After I set up the PDF file, I made an entry in my “Day Detail” journal – saying what I’d done & when.  That was at about 8:30 in the evening.

At something like two minutes after three – the following morning – I made my next entry in that journal.

That’s right about when I got to “Part 6: Captain Silver” and “Chapter 7: And Last” – and I read that “All of us had an ample share of the treasure and used it wisely or foolishly, according to our nature.”  Ben Gun “got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three weeks.”  “Of (Long John) Silver we have heard no more.”

The narrator, Jim Hawkins, doesn’t comment on how he used his money, but he does say, “The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me.  Oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island; and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts or start upright in bed with the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: “Pieces of eight!  Pieces of eight!”  (Captain Flint is Long John Silver’s parrot.)

It was rather like I imagine it would be to take drugs on a roller coaster that’s headed directly and immediately for the crimson core of the planet.  It’s like taking that next peanut – or that next corn chip – or it’s like that roller coaster – you’re helpless – you are completely incapable of stopping.

And what a ride!

You start at a sleepy, sea-side inn.  In a trice, you are hurtling along a rich story of adventure and treachery on the high seas – most of the story seen through the eyes of a boy.  The characters, the dialog, the atmosphere, the story – are crackling and compelling.

Just watch your head.

For over six hours, I tapped that down key – before I finally read, “Pieces of eight!  Pieces of eight!”

But I plead temporary insanity.  Treasure Island temporary insanity.

It’s like getting caught by a change of season cold – or the flu.  It wasn’t my fault.

And hey!  Maybe tonight, I can get some sleep.

I hope so.  Oh – I do hope so.

I woke up about 3 this morning, feeling rather strange. 3 is a little early for me – even with my irregular sleep patterns.

After I got my basic daily journal entries set up, I decided to take my numbers – BP and so forth. My BP and blood sugar were high – not good. My weight was actually down 1.4 pounds from last week. That is good.

Those lines are how I started my “Strange Feelings – Difficult Questions” post two weeks ago.

Since that post was fairly alarming, I wanted to update what I could.

What I’ve been able to change

Much of what I talked about in that article is going to take more time to change.

But, in these two weeks, I have been able to make a change to some of the immediate, health related items.

My root problem, in the health arena, is eating – “food, glorious food.” For most of my life, that’s been my problem. It was a problem even before I knew it was a problem.

Weight is my key metric. It impacts my blood pressure and my blood sugar – these are the two elements, apart from weight, that I can measure. It also impacts my blood lipid profile, various aches and discomforts, and surely a myriad of other things.

I have evolved a pretty reasonable eating pattern. Plain Cheereos with half a banana for breakfast – almost every morning. I have a broccoli-salsa salad most days for lunch (this salad is similar to the salad I described in Super Salad with Salsa). Dinner is usually baked chicken nuggets and steamed vegetables – or Progresso soup with the addition of an 8 oz can of tomato sauce and a quantity of fresh bits of broccoli.

My eating pattern has two difficulties. First: some of these meals can get larger than is altogether helpful. Second: and by far the worse problem – is extras – add-ons. After dinner is my worst time – before dinner is my second worst time – and I can do damage just about any time.

And the havoc that my weight, and especially any evening eating, can play with my sleep patterns – which are irregular at best, these days – is a truly awful experience.

After I got so alarmed, two weeks ago, I made a few changes.

I got pretty tight on eating – for me, and for my partner. We cut out almost all betweens and afters. And I tightened up some on our meal size.

Another change was in the area of exercise. We have a treadmill in our basement, and we’ve used it almost every second evening for the past two weeks. Or, sometimes, we go to a nearby regional park, and we walk – up hill and down.

One other thing I’ve done – some – is to increase my use of deep breathing. A few years ago, I got a book called Conscious Breathing by Gay Hendricks. I find that step one, of what he calls “The Short Form,” can definitely improve the way I feel.

What has changed

These changes to our routines have yielded some changes to the alarming situations I described in my post of two weeks ago.

My “strange feeling” – which was a tightness in my chest, when I breathed in deeply – has gone away completely.

In the past week, I have had one weight reading that was under 200 pounds.

Now, I’ve been keeping weight records irregularly for a bit over fifteen years. Before the past few weeks, the lowest I had ever recorded was 206 – the highest was 230. 199 is a glorious step in the right direction.

My most recent blood pressure and blood sugar readings were good. My blood pressure was under the usual normal guidelines – 120/80, and it was very nearly where my doctor said she would like it to be – 115/75. My blood sugar was in the normal range – under 100.

And so …

With these behavior pattern changes – and the numeric changes that resulted – I have been able to reduce my clear and immediate health alarms.

I need to keep that alarm reduced. And I need to reduce it further.

I also need to work toward changing what of those other difficult elements I can change.

That is a story yet to unfold.

Well – I wanted to post an update to my earlier, alarming story. So – there it is.

Once again, thank you for listening.

After I got my basic daily journal entries set up in TreePad, I decided to take my numbers – BP and so forth. My BP and blood sugar were high – not good. My weight was actually down 1.4 pounds from last week. That is good.

My Current Situation

I live in the northern Delaware area, and I’m unemployed. My health insurance is individual with a high deductible and a high 50-50 co-pay, and it costs me the earth every quarter, so I can’t really afford much medical care. I have no financial resources – I’m just now asking my sister for financial help – again – to give me more time for my writing project to work. I have no debts at this point.

I’m working to turn myself into a writer. I know there are people who earn an excellent income writing. Whether I can earn a decent living by writing is another question. That horse of a different color – what you ‘eard tell about.

I’ve been thinking and reading about writing for some years now. I’ve been moving forward – slowly – perhaps too slowly. I’ve recently organized (and announced – on another of my blogs) a project to “Write More” – which I intend to segue into a project to try to earn a living from my writing.

To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, I’m trying to “find that eternal dimension in [myself], and [I] will ride through time and throughout the whole length of [my] days.” (In “Pathways to Bliss” – Chapter 1: The Necessity of Rites)

I’m quite good with a personal computer – which is a huge help with my writing. I’m no hacker, but I’m a fairly powerful user. I’m quite the tool maker.

My partner has no money – and has some debts. He’s on medicaid, so he has medical coverage. He has A.D., early- to mid-stage. He is eligible for S.S., but once that starts, his medicaid and food stamps stop. The closest thing he has to family is his deceased sister’s husband and family in Illinois – across the river from St. Louis.

I am his primary care giver.

My family is in the Northern Virginia area. My mother is housebound and her resources are limited. My brother has his own difficulties and limited resources. My sister is well employed and doing all right – and she has a full and complex life – which includes helping my mother.

And I have a beautiful, smart, gentle cat named Cleo – who I also need to take care of.

Difficult Questions

I have nobody to talk this over with. My partner can’t really help. And I don’t know anyone else who can help.

The whole situation looks a little rough.

Is it time to cut-’n-run? Is it time to crash-’n-burn?

Our townhouse rental office just sent their annual renewal letter – that’s an opportunity. And the car is overdue for service – that’s a liability.

Is it time to make a change?

What sort of change?

A Possibility

I could pay $80 and visit my doctor. She might be able to get my BP and blood sugar under control – maybe easily and inexpensively. That’s a possibility. That could give me some more time.

And so …

I was going to go into one of my problem solving TreePad articles and explore this situation – maybe using a PMI structure.

Then it occurred to me that it didn’t help to keep something serious like this a secret.

My blogs get hardly any readers, but this is the only non-secret outlet I have.

So – rather than explore this problem quietly, in a private journal article – I proceeded to use Angela Booth’s Organic Writing idea, and I wrote an article for my blog.

This article has taken me about two hours to write. That’s not bad. It’s got a lot of information, it’s fairly well organized, and it reads pretty smoothly. And that’s all due to Ms. Booth’s “Write More” course.

Thank you for listening.

I live with a cat named Cleopatra. Cleo for short.

She generously lets me live with her, even though I don’t earn my keep yet.

Appearance

Cleo is a stripped tabby – black and tan. She has the classic “M” on her forehead; a white lower jaw; long, graceful side whiskers; a delightful red-brown nose; an irresistible tan belly; beautiful paws; and a smooth, silky coat. Everything about her is gorgeous.

She got her name from her gold eye-liner that Elizabeth Taylor would kill for.

The tip of her tail often almost touches the back of her head – like the bale handle on a cooking kettle.

Behavior

Cleo is the first cat we’ve had who hasn’t had a feline companion. And she has not been left alone for hours and hours, day after day, because we were working outside the home. So she’s grown up closer to us than any other cat.

She’s the only cat we’ve had who talks to us. She meows and rumbles and chirps. And if you talk back to her, sometimes she’ll sit there and chat with you – back and forth.

But she’s not a needy cat. She doesn’t lie in someone’s lap constantly. She’s quite independent actually.

She spends much of her day on the comforter, nestled in the valley between the two mattresses. That’s her most frequent daytime spot.

But if the sun is bright, you’re likely to find her in the brightest spot, her fur hotter than a pizza oven, and purring like a tiger.

But when she wants attention, she has no problem letting you know just exactly what she wants.

She loves to have her belly rubbed or scratched. And she loves to have her ears scratched.

Often, in the kitchen, she will meow – over and over. If you decide that she wants something to eat – it being the kitchen – and give her some food, she usually ignores it.

She wants to be picked up. Hold her in your arms, and she’s quiet and contented – looking almost pleased about how clever she is.

She’ll roll over on her back and wriggle around, offering her golden belly to be rubbed or scratched.

When she’s on her back, sometimes I’ll pick her up – one hand under her shoulders and one under her rump – and I’ll lift her up and cradle her in my arms. Sometimes she’ll press her perfect paw lightly against my cheek. She’s five feet in the air – upside-down – and she’s purring her head off.

Of course, she’s never been given the slightest reason to feel threatened – or to feel that she’s in any danger at all.

She grooms herself extremely well. She may be the cleanest cat we’ve ever had.

And she has this startling pose when she’s cleaning her belly and lower bits. She lies on her lower back, with her legs splayed out left and right, her upper body curved up like a paper clip, and she placidly cleans her belly or thighs or tail. Sometimes she’ll reach out and grab a foot – or tail – and pull it in closer, so she can clean it better.

I don’t think she’s done this recently, but she used to often pick up a mouth full of food pellets. She’d carry them into the living room – where we were sitting – and she’d drop them on the carpet, and then she’d eat them one by one.

Even more unusual – but she did do this – several times – she would pick up a food pellet between the pads of her paw and then eat it right out of her “hand”.

Extraordinary Cat

Cleo feels like an extraordinary cat.

I’m sure that much of her beauty, intelligence, and gentle disposition are a product of her heritage.

At the same time, she has spent most of her waking hours with us. She’s smart, and she has learned what we respond to.

. . .

Or perhaps … Noooooo. Could it be? Is it possible?

Maybe I’m ignoring facts that are plain as the nose on my face.

Perhaps SHE has taught US what SHE responds to.

Could it be that she’s trained us, rather than we’ve trained her?

Maybe she’s smarter than I am.

I’m not sure that would surprise me.

I’ll have to give that one a little thought.