Steve, I loved these shots, especially of the sunflowers. I’m going to forward this to Robert so that he can see a little of what “going up north” means to a Michigander. Glad you got away — you have a very nice and very wise wife!

Boy do I know that I am lucky to have my wife as a companion and general wise person to balance off my crazy stuff!!!! thanks for checking out the pics and your comments!!!

[…] This morning my eye fell once again on the Zingerman article about Servant Leadership mentioned in a previous post. […]

[…] free mostly original sheet music […]

Not that you asked, but let me suggest that you try this: turn your feet so that both are pointing forward (the direction they’re supposed to point). Next, observe the direction your knees are pointing. When I do this my knees are pointing inward toward one another. This is, most likely, due to the birth defect I have with my ankle. When I learned to walk, because my ankle wouldn’t work right, I unconsciously turned my feet outward in order to achieve balance and not to fall over. I never noticed the way this shows up in my knees (my legs grew in such a way as to be twisted – maintaining balance while fitting correctly into my hip sockets). The only effect this had on me when I was younger was that I, too, walked with one foot sticking out. As I grow older, I find my ankle (particularly the right one) grows weaker, that I have hip pain and that my back hurts more and more. My gut says that all of this is interrelated. FWIW… I went to an orthopedic specialist and she prescribed orthotics that were not covered by my health insurance and would have cost me over $300. I ended up going with an expensive orthotic insole ($50 … has to be replaced a number of times a year, even when I buy a different set for different shoes and don’t wear them all the time). These seem to make it possible for me to walk without a huge amount of pain. But even then I wake up on Monday’s with an extremely painful ankle, a somewhat painful hip and a stiff back. Getting old is so much fun.

M

Yikes! You have mentioned this to me before. Sorry it causes you so much physical pain! I seemed to have lucked out so far with aches and pain suffering only creaky morning stiffness. I too have the insoles (as I mentioned to you recently). I didn’t mention them in the blog, but I do credit them with improvement in my walk and especially the ebbing of foot pain.

Is this the same notion that voice teachers use, of concentrating the “effort” of singing on avoiding tension, staying out of the way of the voice, etc…?

I do think there is a relationship between the way voice teachers (and choral conductors) use imagery to teach indirectly and the way I understand the inhibition suggestions Alexander Technique recommends. Simply telling a singer to “relax” often has the opposite effect.

I find it interesting how so much art requires that the maker get out of the way of expression. I enjoy the amazement singers express when they discover how high they sing, or how wonderful they sound when they sing more freely. There is probably a list of terms we could develop with terms related to this, but all I can think of right now is writer’s block.

Alexander Technique is a systematic discipline about “allowing” the body to function (especially in terms of balance and movement) the way it is designed.. i.e. most freely and “naturally.” Just as we talk about learned unnatural breathing versus the way babies breathe, Alexander things this way about the entire body. I can’t afford lessons and there’s no teacher I know of right now or I would definitely study this discipline. In the meantime, I do read in the wonderful book, “How You Stand, How You Move, How you Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Self-Mastery” by Missy Vineyard. Michelle Rego did some study in this area.

[…] free mostly original sheet music […]

Happy Birthday, Steve! And congratulations to Eileen on her new job!
Michelle in NH

Happy birthday you old codger. How is the house renovation doing?

Happy Birthday Dad. Hope you have a stress less day.
David

Random fact of the day: I stayed in Mi?osz’s apartment building in Krakow this past May. I have no idea if I was in his actual room or not, but I found this to be another example of the wonderful gift Europe offers the casual traveler: significant artificts of history and culture surprise you constantly.

Happy birthday, old man!

Nick

Thank you for the birthday wishes, people. I had a very good day. Ray, the house renovation is starting to move a bit. We are contracting with a relative of Eileen’s to finish the upstairs bathroom and roof the area over the kitchen. Nick, I totally agree about discovering history and culture when traveling. I actually experienced New York City that way as well.

Happy Birthday-what is your wife’s new job-will she still be working for a library-peace Jonny

As to the film industry, check out:

http://blog.onthebox.com/2011/09/16/harlan-ellison-sues-in-time-filmmakers/

I saw this interview of David Berlinski on the Hoover Institution’s “uncommon knowledge” program. Specifically the focus is on his book “The Devil’s Delusion, Atheism and it’s Scientific Pretensions”
I thought that you might find it interesting.
http://www.humanevents.com/UncommonKnowledge.php

The comment about compassion is always a clever element by the media. But in reality government is not about compassion. People are about compassion. Who decides this, Government? I think not. Does this mean that Ron Paul is not compassionate? or does it mean that he does not support Governmental compassion? this is a condition of how does one legislate compassion? Does government health care really involve compassion? Certainly, as an individual we can design a compassionate response to a compassionate condition, but is this the responsibility of the government? I think not and to equate this with personal lack of compassion is erroneous.