An amazing and powerfully positive story from here in Payson, AZ
Big thanks to friends John and Janet Z. here in Payson for passing me a copy of the Payson Roundup from Tuesday, May 24th. Because I want to include much of this news story I have left it a few days so as not seen too directly as a copyright infringement.
This is how the story unfolds,
Homeless teens triumph against odds
Graduation nears for students who persevered despite chaos and carnage
In the summer after fifth-grade, Payson Herring found himself on the streets, living behind dingy car washes and eating stale food out of dumpsters. With both of his parents in jail and no one to look after him, he barely survived.
When he did show up to school, he was dirty, smelly and his attitude stunk worse than his clothes. Herring didn’t worry about high school graduation, he just wanted to make it through another night.
Yes, young Mr. Herring’s first name is Payson, presumably named after the town. The article continues,
Meanwhile, for Emerald “Emi” Stacklie, after living through three of her mother’s failed suicide attempts and two of her own, life remains chaotic as a homeless student. She continues to bounce from one friend’s couch to another, and often spends the night in her truck.
The only stability she found in life came when she met her fiancé a year ago, but like her childhood, that was also ripped away. Five months ago, her fiancé died in a car crash that left Stacklie two weeks in the hospital for her own injuries.
Both Herring and Stacklie continue to face circumstances most teens will never dream of, but despite hardships — that include incarcerated or addicted parents, homelessness, medical conditions and tragedy — both have so far beaten the odds.
From the outside, both teens look normal, with designer-laced clothing and beautiful smiles, but what they have gone through is unbelievable.
Both teens agreed to an interview, hoping other homeless teens will come forward sooner for help. Payson High School has resources, including housing for homeless teens through the Payson Assisting Displaced Students (PADS) program launched last year.
Emi Stacklie and Payson Herring are ready to graduate, after having overcome daunting obstacles.
The rest of the story may be read here. I’m going to cut straight to the closing paragraphs.
With the support of friends and his teammates, Herring has developed a new perspective.
No longer angry with his past, Herring began focusing on the future. He worked hard at football, put more effort into schoolwork and stayed away from drugs and alcohol.
Herring used his past to help shape what he was becoming.
“I am not even mad at my parents,” he said. “There is nothing they can do now about the past. What matters now is what happens in the future and what I do. I am making my future brighter.”
Herring has plans to adopt “at least three kids.” Using his own experiences, Herring said he could handle just about any child. “I want kids to grow up realizing alcohol does bad things,” he said.
Recently, Herring even reconciled with his father.
While Herring and Stacklie still struggle, both are graduating May 26 along with 163 Payson High classmates. Both have plans for their futures — Herring to serve in the military and eventually become a police officer and Stacklie will start work at a hospital as an LPN.
“I am very, very proud,” Oakland said. “We will miss them.”
Herring and Stacklie defied the odds and “bottom-line beat the system,” she added.
These are very tough young people who will see in time that combating these sorts of major hurdles will give them a self-confidence and self-pride that is beyond measure. Well done to you, Payson and Stacklie.
Travelling the 5,200 miles, give or take, between Payson (AZ) and London (UK)
Apologies for a slightly reduced service over the next 10 days but Monday 6th June finds me travelling from Phoenix to Dallas, and then Dallas to London Heathrow. This as a result of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) granting me permanent residence (the Green Card) in April and thus me being able to travel back to England to see my new grandson for the first time.
So just a few thoughts, courtesy of Terry Hershey. I subscribe to his weekly Sabbath Moment and they always contain some beautiful sayings and other gems. Take these for example, from his Sabbath Moment of the 30th May.
Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile. . .initially scared me to death. Betty Bender
Betty Bender
Or what about this?
To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. Soren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (b. 1813, d. 1855) was a profound and prolific writer in the Danish “golden age” of intellectual and artistic activity. His work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction. Kierkegaard brought this potent mixture of discourses to bear as social critique and for the purpose of renewing Christian faith within Christendom. At the same time he made many original conceptual contributions to each of the disciplines he employed. He is known as the “father of existentialism”, but at least as important are his critiques of Hegel and of the German romantics, his contributions to the development of modernism, his literary experimentation, his vivid re-presentation of biblical figures to bring out their modern relevance, his invention of key concepts which have been explored and redeployed by thinkers ever since, his interventions in contemporary Danish church politics, and his fervent attempts to analyse and revitalise Christian faith.
OK, dear readers, from somewhere over who knows where!
Linking yesterday’s amazing story with Dr. Sheldrake’s work.
Many of you will have read the account published yesterday about little Mason, the pet dog that was picked up by the recent tornado in North Smithfield, Alabama. Here’s a recap of what happened.
Mason, a terrier mix, now rests inside the Vulcan Park Animal Care Clinic where he’s waiting to find out what kind of surgery he will need to repair 2 badly broken legs. This is only the 2nd night he’s spent under any kind of roof in the last 2 weeks and the story of how he got there is almost too amazing to believe.
On April 27th, Mason was hiding in his garage in North Smithfield when the storm picked him up and blew him away. His owners couldn’t find him and had about given up when they came back Monday to sift through the debris, and found Mason waiting for them on the porch.
In that book, there are several references to both incredible journeys undertaken by pet dogs and the science believed to be involved. The book is much recommended.
Chapter 13 of Sheldrake’s book is called Pets Finding Their People Far Away. Here’s how it starts,
In 1582, Leonhard Zollikofer left his native St. Gall, Switzerland, to go to Paris as ambassador to the court of the French King Henri III. He left behind his faithful dog, aptly named Fidelis. Two weeks later the dog disappeared from St. Gall. Three weeks after that he rejoined his master at the court in Paris, exactly at the time when the Swiss ambassadors were being led in to an audience with the king. The dog had never been to Paris before. How did he find his master so far away from home?
There are other ‘mind-blowing’ examples in the book. In Chapter 10, Incredible Journeys, Dr. Sheldrake explores many aspects of this wondrous ability of many animals.
Animals bond not only to members of their social group but also to particular places. Many kinds of animals, both wild and domesticated, can find their way home from unfamiliar locations. This attachment to places depends on morphic fields, which underlie the sense of direction that enables animals to find their way home over unfamiliar terrain.
The sense of direction also plays a vital role in migration. Some species, like swallows, salmon, and sea turtles, migrate from breeding grounds to feeding grounds and back again over thousands of miles. Their ability to navigate is one of the great unsolved mysteries of biology, as I discuss in the next chapter. Here too I think that morphic fields, and the ancestral memory inherent in them, could provide an explanation.
If you have read this and are curious, then these videos will give you a little more to mull over. The first is a little ‘alternate’.
Watch this video – any chit-chat from me is superfluous.
Smithfield, Alabama
If a tornado picked you up, threw you across the sky, and set you down in an unfamiliar place far away from home, and you broke two legs in the process, could you find your way back? That’s exactly the incredible story of Mason, a terrier mix in Alabama.
Credits.
I first saw the item as a link in the daily digest from Naked Capitalism. As ever, I am indebted to the fantastic work that Yves and her team does in scouring the world for interesting news items.
The link went to a website that was just loaded with ads but in the article was another link to Fox 6. There was the story as well, as this extract explains,
BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) –
Update**:As of Wednesday night, Mason has been x-rayed and put on an IV. His vets at the Vulcan Park Animal Clinic plan to operate on his two broken legs Friday. They will use plates and maybe pins to help realign his bones. Doctors think it will be a long, but ultimately successful recovery.
Amazing stories of survival from the April 27th tornadoes don’t just include people. There are some amazing 4-legged tales of endurance being told including the story of one dog who just returned home yesterday. He is clearly battered, but alive.
Mason, a terrier mix, now rests inside the Vulcan Park Animal Care Clinic where he’s waiting to find out what kind of surgery he will need to repair 2 badly broken legs. This is only the 2nd night he’s spent under any kind of roof in the last 2 weeks and the story of how he got there is almost too amazing to believe.
On April 27th, Mason was hiding in his garage in North Smithfield when the storm picked him up and blew him away. His owners couldn’t find him and had about given up when they came back Monday to sift through the debris, and found Mason waiting for them on the porch.
Do support the Fox 6 website by reading the story in full.
Finally, the original link, as mentioned above, did contain this great news update,
Because of the generosity of Vulcan Park Animal Care in Birmingham, a center that volunteered their services to help the ailing pup, Mason is now on the mend — and needless to say, being showered with affection. Last Friday, Mason underwent surgery to fix metal plates to both his broken limbs, which will keep them stabilized as they heal. Mason will remain at Vulcan Park for about six more weeks, as his family works to restore some sense of order to their shattered home.
Just another account of how remarkable man’s best friend truly is.
Concluding article on the great Benoit Mandelbrot.
Yesterday, I wrote about Benoit Mandelbrot but wanted to save some additional information for today.
There’s a very comprehensive review of Benoit’s life on a website called NNDB. In that review, it mentions his association with the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center where he worked for 32 years. It was while working for IBM that he published the paper that established his credentials world-wide. Taken from the IBM website is this extract,
The father of fractals, Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, passed away from pancreatic cancer on October 16, 2010. He was 85.
Benoit, IBM Fellow Emeritus, joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1958 where he worked for 32 years. His 1967 article published in Science, How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension, introduced the concept that a geometric shape can be split into pieces that are smaller copies of the whole. It wasn’t until 1975 that he defined the mathematical shapes as fractals.
Here is another website that has fractal images taken from the Mandelbrot set. An example.
Just stunningly beautiful!
Finally, if you go to this website there is a slideshow of stunning images of fractals in honour of the great man.
There is so much about the lives of humans that is astoundingly beautiful.
Before I get started on this article, a few words about the Blog in general. In recent times, the readership of Learning from Dogs has increased, frankly, to quite amazing levels. Not really sure why but grateful, nonetheless.
Readers will recognize that articles written specifically about dogs are in the minority. Even using dogs as a metaphor would still limit what could be published. But as is written elsewhere on the Blog, ‘The underlying theme of Learning from Dogs is about truth, integrity, honesty and trust in every way.’ Dogs are integrous creatures; that’s all the example required.
We are at a point in the history of man where truth, integrity, honesty and trust are critically important (they have always been important but the economic and ecological pressures bearing down on us all make these values critical to mankind’s survival). Thus the aspiration of Learning from Dogs is to offer insights on truth from as many perspectives as possible – and to make your experience as a reader sufficiently enjoyable that you will wish to return!
OK! On to the topic for today!
There are many aspects of the world in which we live that are mysterious beyond our imagination. Take the circle. Practically everyone is aware that to calculate either the area or the circumference of a circle one needs to use a mathematical constant π or ‘pi’. As a mathematician would put it, π (sometimes written pi) is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle’s area to the square of its radius. π is approximately equal to 3.14159.
Note the word ‘approximately’! Now read this,
(PhysOrg.com) — A computer scientist in France has broken all previous records for calculating Pi, using only a personal computer. The previous record was approximately 2.6 trillion digits, but the new record, set by Fabrice Bellard, now stands at almost 2.7 trillion decimal places.
Bellard, of Paris Telecom Tech, made and checked the calculation by running his own software algorithms for 131 days. The previous record calculation, set by Daisuke Takahashi at the University of Tsukuba in Japan in August 2009, took only 29 hours to complete, but used a super-computer costing millions of dollars, and running 2000 times faster than Bellard’s PC.
Apart from the wonderful aspect of the need of a human being to go on determining the n’th value of π there is a deeper and more beautiful aspect (well to me there is!) and that is the acknowledgement that something as simple as, say, that round coin in your hand is an expression of the infinite.
Now to Benoit Mandelbrot, who died a little over six months ago, but in his lifetime also explored the wonder and magic of the infinite.
Here’s a video of Mandelbrot recorded in February 2010 in what would be his last year of his life on earth.
If you found that video fascinating then try this series of six videos presented by the one and only Arthur C. Clarke.
Benoit Mandelbrot died on the 14th October, 2010, a little over a month before his eighty-sixth birthday (born 20th November, 1924). Here’s a nice tribute from the The New York Times.
Tomorrow, some more insights into the mysterious beauty of fractals.
Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. From the sayings of the Buddha.
I first mentioned this book on the 13th May when I was about a third of the way in. Because I thought there might be material useful to the course that has been running here in Payson, I did skip around the book looking for ‘attention-grabbing’ points. It wasn’t difficult to find numerous extracts.
Try this on page 214 from the Chapter Afterword.
As it turns out, however, the BP spill was not the most dangerous thing that happened in the months after this book was first published. In fact, in the spring and summer of 2101, the list of startling events in the natural world included:
Nineteen nations setting new all-time high temperature records, which in itself is a record. Some of those records were for entire regions – [then some of the details]
Scientists reported that the earth had just come through the warmest six months, the warmest year, and the warmest decade for which we have records; it appears 2010 will be the warmest calendar year on record.
The most protracted and extreme heat wave in a thousand years of Russian history (it had never before topped 100 degrees in Moscow) led to a siege of peat fires that shrouded the capital in ghostly, deadly smoke. [Then goes on to mention the effect of this heat on global grain prices.]
Since warm air holds more water vapour that cold air, scientists were not surprised to see steady increases in flooding. Still, the spring and summer of 2010 were off the charts. We saw “thousand-year storms” across the globe [goes into details]
Meanwhile, in the far north, the Petermann Glacier on Greenland calved an iceberg four times the size of Manhattan.
And the most ominous news of all might have come from the pages of the eminent scientific journal Nature, which published an enormous study of the productivity of the earth’s seas. [More details follow – not good news!]
That last point can be read in more detail from Nature‘s website. It’s here.
The book closes thus (referring to how the BP oil spill was, ultimately, an accident),
But the greatest danger we face, climate change, is no accident. It’s what happens when everything goes the way it’s supposed to go. It’s not a function of bad technology, it’s a function of a bad business model: of the fact that Exxon Mobil and BP and Peabody Coal are allowed to use the atmosphere, free of charge, as an open sewer for the inevitable waste from their products. They’ll fight to the end to defend that business model, for it produces greater profits that any industry has ever known. We won’t match them dollar for dollar: To fight back, we need a different currency, our bodies and our spirit and our creativity. That’s what a movement looks like; let’s hope we can rally one in time to make a difference.
The background. My fellow author, Jon Lavin, received an email on the 6th May, as follows,
Dear Jon,
Hello, I am writing from Headline publishers to ask whether you might like to review the book Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalvan on your blog Learning From Dogs. I understand that the title of your blog is a metaphor, but in this case it is particularly apt, as the book details a very special relationship between a man and his dog. The book is written by a retired U.S. Army captain, Captain Luis Carlos Montalvan, and it describes the way in which the Captain’s participation in the army and in Iraq in particular, left him suffering from an extreme case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so much so that even performing small daily tasks were almost impossible for him. That is, until service dog Tuesday was brought into his life. Tuesday truly taught the Captain how to function again, and furthermore, how to enjoy life again. I believe that the blog’s posts such as ‘Dogs and integrity’ and, indeed, the blog’s opening statement, indicate that this book might be of interest to you.
Well Jon, at that time, still wasn’t clear of the last hurdles of his MA, so I offered to do the review and contacted Headline and, as a consequence, Montalvan’s book arrived here in Payson yesterday. Frankly, although flattered by the nice words written about Learning from Dogs and the invite to review the book, I didn’t have a clue as how to approach the job in hand. To be honest, I still don’t!
So I am not going to study how other book reviews are put together, I’m just going to give you my feelings and reactions as they happen.
It was a busy day so I did no more than open the envelope, read the front and back covers of the book, plus the single page ‘flyer’ from Headline Publishing included in the envelope.
This is the front cover of the book (slightly different layout to the American version, by the way) which for any dog lover (we have 12 dogs here in Payson) is obviously eye-catching.
Then idly, I opened the book completely at random, it was page 243, and read from the start of the first paragraph on that page. Here’s what I read,
A few days later, Tuesday quietly crossed our apartment as I read a book and, after a nudge against my arm, put his head on my lap. As always, I immediately checked my mental state, trying to assess what was wrong. I knew a change in my biorhythms had brought Tuesday over, because he was always monitoring me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Breathing? Okay. Pulse? Normal. Was I glazed or distracted? Was I lost in Iraq? Was a dark period descending? I didn’t think so, but I knew something must be wrong, and I was starting to worry … until I looked into Tuesday’s eyes. They were staring at me softly from under those big eyebrows, and there was nothing in them but love.
When I put my hand on his head, he stepped on to the couch and raised his face to my own. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then, slowly, Tuesday licked me. Yes, on the lips … and the chin … and the nose … slobbering all over my face with that big slow-moving tongue. That’s the moment when Tuesday, after all his caution, stopped being just my service dog, and my emotional support, and my conversation piece. That’s when he became my friend.
I closed the book. There were wet corners to my eyes, my voice was unsteady as I said to Jeannie, “Well I better get on with some stuff.” and left the room.
I was transported back to the start of 2007 when I had my own share of crap to deal with and having my friend Pharaoh, my German Shepherd (that’s him on the home page of Learning from Dogs) with me was my salvation, and the key to him and me finding this beautiful woman, my wife Jean, a dog lover extraordinaire, and a life that I couldn’t even have dreamt about. Funny old world!
So, yes, I will enjoy reading Until Tuesday over the coming days and, dear reader, will report back from time to time. The British publishers, Headline, have a synopsis on their website. It reads thus,
UNTIL TUESDAY is the story of how Tuesday, a service dog, helps to heal a shattered soldier.
Luis Carlos Montalván is a 17-year veteran and retired captain of the US Army. Even after suffering stab wounds, a traumatic brain injury and three broken vertebrae, Captain Luis chose to remain at his post on the Iraq-Syria border. In his mind, he had come this far, now wasn’t the time to abandon his comrades.
However, when Luis returned home, the pressures and injuries proved too much to bear. Physical disabilities,agoraphobia and crippling PTSD drove him to the brink of suicide. And that’s when he met Tuesday.
UNTIL TUESDAY entwines Luis’ story of courage and bravery with that of his trusted dog, Tuesday, and shows how a brave soldier who fought tirelessly for his country, found a way back from the devastation of being injured in action, with the help of his canine friend.
The agony of watching a country (and a planet) slip.
Readers will be aware that I very rarely stroll through the tangled pastures of international politics and finance. The only reason that I do so today is on the back of a very impressive letter published in the German newspaper Handelsblatt. That was brought to my attention by my subscription to Mike Shedlock’s (Mish) Blog Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis. You will see that I muse at two levels about where we are today.
Earlier, I had read in last Saturday’s, The Economist a leader on Greece’s debt crisis, entitled Trichet the intransigent. That started thus,
The European Central Bank’s refusal to consider a restructuring of Greek debt could wreck the euro zone
May 12th 2011 | from the print edition
IF THE stakes were not so high, Europeans’ incompetence in the euro-zone debt crisis would be comic.
and concluded thus,
It is time for the Germans and the IMF to call the ECB’s bluff. Together they should demand, and instigate, a restructuring of Greek debt. Germany should push other European governments to cough up money to support Greek banks and, if necessary, to make whole the ECB. The fund, which knows how to restructure debt, must ensure the process is run in a competent manner. The ECB will then be faced with a choice: go along with an orderly restructuring, or trigger a much greater mess by in effect forcing Greece out of the euro zone. Surely Mr Trichet does not want that to be his legacy.
So with that as background, the letter to Georgios Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece written by Gabor Steingart is powerful and hard hitting. Here it is in full.
Mr. Prime Minister,
Dear Mr. Papandreou,
With the greatest respect, the Western world is monitoring your efforts to master your country’s debt crisis. No other democratic country has ever managed anything like that in peacetime. You are shrinking the state apparatus; you are fighting corruption; you are teaching your fellow countrymen how to become honest tax-payers.
You are a modern hero. You are attempting the impossible. As the son of a persecuted and ostracized politician who was chased by the military junta you grew up close to danger. When the officers were looking for your father who was hiding in the attic, they threatened you by putting an unlocked pistol to your forehead and challenged you to betray your father. You denied your father’s presence until he, worried about his son’s life, left his hiding place.Later you fled with him to America where you spent your adolescence. You are alarger-than-life-character.
Preceding governments almost ruined your country. Debts amounting to 340 billion Euros are burdening the Greek state,equaling 155 times the profit of the 60 largest companies of your country and 1.5 times the amount of debts the Maastricht Treaty allows. A year ago, this newspaper, Germany’s biggest Business Daily, appealed to the public to buy Greek government bonds in order to give to the country what Greece needs just as urgently as money: confidence. We also wanted to assist in breaking through the negative spiral of growing doubt and increasing interest rates. Everyone who granted you guarantees and loans wanted it, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, the heads of state and government.
But since then, the spiral has picked up in speed instead of slowing down. In May 2010 the interest rate at which your country was given money on a ten year basis was at eight per cent. Today, it is at 16 per cent. And in all probability, it will be going up further. The bitter truth to which you and all parties who wanted to help Greece have to admit is that the help doesn’t help. Your country is getting deeper and deeper into the mess. Debts are growing, the gross national product will decrease by at least three per cent in 2011. But it would have to grow by three per cent instead if you were to lower your debt to the allowedlimit until 2040. This is becoming more and more unrealistic. You can’t starve and build up your muscles at the same time.
The truth that Greece has to cut back and save has turned into an untruth. The right thing has turned into the wrong thing. You already cut pensions, lowered the salaries of civil servants by 30 per cent and raised the prices of gas by almost 50 per cent. You can’t restore the health of your country by saving. And the European Union can’t restore your country’s health by again and again injecting new loans.
Soon, the day will come when the tortured body will surrender. The Greek construction industry already shrank by 70 per cent. Sales of car dealers sank by half. A daily export volume of 50 million Euros Greece is achieving far too little. Soon the day will come which investors fear in their nightmares. Then the word “insolvency” will be on everyone’s lips.
But it is also the day when a new truth will be born: Don’t save but invest, they will tell you – so that the Greek economy will grow again. Do not service debt with debt, you then will be recommended, but spread out the debt service, cut it and maybe even completely suspend it for a while. It will be a day of impositions, especially for those who lendmoney to you and your people. Financial markets will grind to a halt in horror – and then they will turn to embrace the future. Because Argentina in 2001, Mexico at the beginning of the eighties and Germany after World War II taught us that there is a life after death – at least, in the case of highly indebted states.
Mr. Papandreou, so far, you attempted the impossible. Now you should do the possible. Just as you deceived the officers as a boy and denied to know where your father was hiding you now must repudiate the pride of the Greeks – in order to save your country. Come to meet the new uncomfortable truth before it knocks at your door. It’s already on its way.
Respectfully yours,
Gabor Steingart
The author is an award winning Journalist, the former White House Correspondent of “Der Spiegel” and now Handelsblatt’s Editor-in-Chief. His book “The war for wealth. The true story of globalization or while the flat world is broken” was published in the US, GB, China and several other countries by McGraw Hill, New York, in 2008.
You may contact him at
steingart@handelsblatt.com
Powerful, as I said.
In a sense, in a very real sense, this illustration of the end game of our love affair with debt is symptomatic of the end game in terms of mankind’s love affair with, well with mankind. The following was written by an inmate of Oklahoma Prison in 1998.
At the root of my humanity lies a potentially insatiable self-centredness. Given its way, it can become unquenchable. Nothing, not even the richest of imagination, will put out its fire.
This ‘what’s in it for me’ mindset is at the root of all my problems and is where my fears live. From those fears come anger, greed, intolerance, and a host of other shortcomings.
It is no accident that all religions point to the forgetting of self, because all religions know salvation lies in self-forgetting.
As we head relentlessly towards a level of 400 parts per million (PPM) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 50 PPM above the highest safe limit determined by climate scientists, the time for mankind to move on from the debt-laden, over-leveraged, disconnected life from Planet Earth, is now.
Learning from Dogs 