No Bikram this morning. It's Iron Man Day. Whole shopping centers shut down because of all the closed roads. Everyone who is not out there working for the competition or there to cheer on their loved one is hunkered down. Think of an emergency where the instructions are to seek shelter immediately. Well, Safeway, I am told, is open. I think I can reach Home Depot by the back roads. I will call them to see if they're open.
I got up at 8 a.m. and took Elsa for a walk. After watching how Jen worked her psoas muscles yesterday in the yoga class by pushing against her knee as she bent her leg, I started using this as I walked. It looks like the crab walk I used when I was in terrible pain. It will improve my bend in my left hip. We'll see. I am always experimenting.
I took out a bag of organic material and took it to the composter. I noticed that this weed was growing up right through another plant. Everything grows here; invasive plants just love living in Hawaii. I pulled some of them out. It rained hard last night, and I got these babies out by the root. I pulled out 2-foot-long plants. I planned to see if I could pull these same plants out of other plants. But before I did, I washed Elsa.
Does she love to be bathed? No, absolutely not, particularly not since I have to wash her with a special medical soap, and we have to leave it on for 5 minutes before we can rinse it off. Oh, well.
I called Jean after Elsa's bath. Since she was on the East Coast and I was in Hawaii, it was early evening for her. She told me that her triple bypass is definitely scheduled for Monday; she is being carefully monitored and loves the hospital. She begged off a long conversation because she was already tired and hadn't slept that well the night before.
I sat numbly and did some typing. There is a good chance my mental state is from the sudden chemical shift I have been subjected to. The acupuncturist didn't have enough Chinese herbs to give me so I could take them continuously. I have been calling every day to see if the pills are in despite being told that they were arriving on the 10th. I ran out on the 9th. She had me on 12 pills a day. I think going cold turkey isn't the best solution for me. My drenching hot flashes have returned with a vengeance. This experiment may be over, and I will learn to live with my hot flashes.
I had an email from Josh today recommending a book called Tribe by Sebastian Junger. He is responding to my interest in our biological drive to belong to a stable group. Sandor sent me something to read on altruism. I may not be well-read on the topics I write about, but I will be as people send me recommendations.
Judy called. We talked for an hour, and that was only about my life. I still have to hear the details of her time on Lanai.
I have gone on longer walks with Elsa higher up the hills. I ran into a man sweeping the edge of his driveway. I had a long talk with him and his wife. He knew the people who lived in our house before we did. His wife, Tina, works at the local school in the office. We talked about the educational system and how kids are getting more and more difficult. They blame it on the families. Yes and no. If the problem is drug addiction, perhaps the problem lies more with the pharmaceutical companies interested in profit and the doctors who wanted an easy fix to issues of pain.
After dinner, I worked in the library. I alphabetized two more shelves and found the first book in over a week. This search is getting frustrating.
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Musings:
I found Sandor's article on altruism very stimulating. Although much of the information could have confirmed my existing point of view, it also helped me clarify my thinking and challenged it in one respect.
Here's a quote by Darwin that was included in the article:
"As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. The point is that once reached, there is only "an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies from extending to all men of all nations and races. If indeed such men are separated from him by great differences in appearance or habits, experience, unfortunately, shows us how long it is before we look at them as our fellow creatures." Darwin, Origin of the Species, 187-88, as quoted in the Theological Journal mentioned below.
This quote supports my thinking: The small hunter-gatherer bands were bound together by mutual physical support. The relationship between a person's well-being and the well-being of their other group members was visible-literally. Much as every soldier watches out for every member of their squad. Each member of the group knows that their survival is dependent on every other member of the group.
Once a group gets big enough so every individual doesn't know every other individual in the group, circumstances have dramatically changed. If each person isn't a substantial presence, they are, by definition, an abstraction. This increase in group size is a big jump in our social organization as a species. We have to care about people we have never met and assume they contribute something worthwhile to the group, and therefore, their well-being is important to us. We consider their needs.
This article was on altruism, which signifies self-sacrifice to another. I will avoid the term as the article said Catholic teaching doesn't use it. The church prefers to avoid the word altruism because it can take a negative turn of extremism or fanaticism for a cause. They are persuaded not to care about people, not in their limited group.
The sweet-dimwitted man Darwin thought the difference between empathy for a group member and an unseen people was "only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies from extending to all men of all nations and races." How naïve to think the jump from caring about those of our specific group versus all people involves only the dropping of 'an artificial barrier.' Oh, how sadly he underestimated us. Take a look at us now in 2019. We're ready to rip out the hearts of those who differ from us. Below are the exact words in the article from the Theological journal. I think this reflects the continuing hope that man might be comfortable caring about all men. We can still hold out hope. I understand this is what faith is about.
"It is one thing to develop and experience a primitive sense of loyalty to the groups to which one may belong, motivated at least partly by self- or group survival; it is something else to come to recognize and to respect the competing interests of individuals with whom, indeed, one may share membership of a group, but who may also be individuals who belong to other or to no groups." Evolution, Altruism and the Image of God," jack McHoney, S.J., Theological Studies, 71(2010) some journal that Sandor sent me.
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