Okay. So Now I Get It

Facebook, it seems, has greater value to me than encouraging people to buy my books or satisfying my insatiable desire to know what my FB friends many of whom I have never met had for breakfast.  Separated by almost three thousand miles, Facebook has helped me bridge the distance between California and New York/New Jersey.  For example, a Facebook page called Normandy Beach which a couple of days ago had in its several years of existence acquired only a few friends/followers suddenly catapulted up to almost a thousand followers all desperate for information about homes, friends, relatives.  That page has become a wonderful and heartbreaking source of information for so many.  Perhaps by next week it will have reverted to where to get the best muffin but for now it is one of the few ways to find out what is happening in a part of the country cut completely cut off from the rest of us.  Thanks, Mark Z.

East Coast Miseries

Sitting here in Southern California watching coverage of the East Coast storm family and friends seem even farther away than is the normal sense of distance.  And now the power is out on much of the East Coast.  I am reminded that land lines through telephone companies work in power failures.  Cell phones have batteries that run out and phones through cable companies work only when the cable works. 
And here's a picture of the lobby of an apartment building in Jersey City where a family member now separated from us not only by miles but by storms and no electricity hunkers down on the fifth floor with friends and dogs.

If The Election Had Been Held Today

It would at least be over tomorrow.  In addition to a cap on campaign spending, there definitely should be a cap on campaign length.  At some point it becomes almost impossible to care and when that happens times become quite risky.  It isn't fair to bludgeon a nation with constant campaigning.  Let the voting begin so it can at last end.

Sometimes Getting Started Again Is Really Hard

That's when it seems like nothing is possible and so we do nothing because, well, nothing is possible.  That's the nature of feeling overwhelmed until eventually we just stop.  The solution?  Do something.  When so much needs doing it doesn't really matter where we begin.  The important thing is to come unstuck and do something.  So that's what I'm doing right now.  Something.

Yeah. Sometimes I feel that way, too.

Looking Back On The Duarte Festival Of Authors

In a word, it was fun.  It was particularly fun moderating a panel discussion of six fiction authors.  The folks who organize the festival treat the authors to a great day with free lunch, table coverage so the authors can spend some time visiting other authors, and snacks and water.
If you didn't visit it this year, put it on your calendar for next year.  It's a great way to spend part of a Saturday afternoon.

Mary Walker Baron (left) moderates a panel of six fiction authors at the Duarte Festival of Authors.

Turn, Turn, Turn

On the Shabbat which falls in the holiday of Sukkot, we read the book of Ecclesiastes during the morning service.  The opening words of the book state that these are "The words of Koheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem", and legend has it that it was written by King Solomon, the epitome of wisdom, at the end of his life, looking back on what he has learned.  It was an appropriate reading for our agricultural ancestors, as they reaped the harvest and awaited the coming winter.

It's also surprisingly appropriate for us.  Koheleth (as the book is called in Hebrew) is a reflection on the meaning of life.  He ruminates that "there is nothing new under the sun", and that God's phenomena of nature and of human behavior are limited, but that no one can predict what will happen to him or herself, except that death is inevitable.  He advises good living, the enjoyment of what one has, both in material goods, companionship and love of spouse and family, and takes to task those who pursue wealth or power over personal pleasure.

Perhaps the best-known words from the book of Koheleth come from chapter 3, verses 1-8, as set to music by Pete Seeger in 1959, and recorded by The Byrds in 1965.  Wikipedia describes it as, "Easily, the #1 hit with the oldest lyrics".

"A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep."