Sunday, August 21, 2022

 Sunday, August 21, 2022 

   Elsa was still limping on our morning walk. I didn’t take her too far. I didn’t know what was wrong and didn’t want to make it worse. We only got so far before I picked her up and carried her home. She wrapped herself around my neck and snuggled in as is her want. This little girl is bright enough to figure out that she can get me to carry her if she fakes a limp.

  I continued with my commitment to attend church every Sunday. I thought it made Mike happy. If it made him happy, it made me happy. I sat on the south lanai again and wore a mask around others. A woman pulled up on a kick scooter. She parked it near me and looked me straight in the eye with a big smile. I barely recognized her. Maya had converted to Catholicism under Mike’s tutelage. She was devoted to him. Her face looked completely different except for her expression. She has a great, loving smile. She gave me a big hug. She is one great hugger. Her energy is fantastic, so loving, and so comforting. The last time I saw this woman, she was dealing with some rare form of brain cancer. She must have recovered entirely since she could handle a kick scooter. It was good to see her.

  Then she got up to leave as the priest prepared the eucharist. Why would she leave then? She became a devout Catholic. The eucharist would mean a lot to her. I would have to call her to get answers to my questions.

  Today’s Gospel reading referred to the ‘narrow way.’ The other day, I used a similar expression and couldn’t think of where I heard a comparable reference. But there was in today’s reading. How could I have forgotten it? It is probably where I got the expression. My best guess is that my image of the narrow way differs from the Catholic reading. It is Christ-centered. Mine refers to the limited choices that make it possible for two people or groups to get the best deal for themselves.

   At the end of the mass, the priest, an associate pastor from Poland, announced he would leave our parish and go to St. John’s on Oahu. I texted Judy immediately to ask if she knew about this. No, it was a surprise to her, too. The priest said something about having just been told a few days ago. It must be an emergency. Judy knew that one of our associate priests had taken over that parish. He must have left on a dime. Maybe his family in Columbia was ill. Judy said it was a large parish in an impoverished area with people of diverse ethnic and language backgrounds. In other words, it is a difficult parish to run. 

   I stopped by Kona Bay Books to pick up the books the private-school-W would be attending assigned for the year. It was after ten, and the parking lot was empty. As I approached the store, I saw a sign announcing they had moved to the Kipiko Plaza. It took me a few minutes to figure out where that was from reading the map. Their old location was a warehouse with lots of floor space and high ceilings. I couldn’t imagine they could find anything comparable at the Plaza. All the locations were regular shops. While they had probably the largest space in the Plaza, it couldn’t be as big as the warehouse space. This is the only bookstore in town, and it is a used bookstore. I hope they survive the move. I also wonder why they did it. 

   When I got to the new location, I saw the bookstore was only open Monday through Saturday. I resolved to go home and buy the books on Amazon for my Kindle. I spent most of the day reading one of the books, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. I loved it.  

  I don’t usually enjoy fiction. Adult fiction is too complex and often too dark. I wondered if there was some formula for children’s literature on the dark versus the light. The book had several doses of sadness, some downright tragic. Still, it was all presented in the context of a loving, connected group of people and topped by a psychological victory. 

  On the way home from church, Just a Minute was on HPR with Shankar Vedantam about useful delusions. He was a man of pure science and logic. Still, he had concluded that humans couldn’t make it through life unless we indulge in delusions, ergo Useful Delusions, the title of his book. I have always held that point of view. Poor Mike. He would have been appalled at the idea, as Shankar was when he first encountered it. Me, I ordered the book in paperback.

   The father of M & W called in response to my text asking about his plans. W had just started school on the eighteenth. He would send me the books. (So I had understood him correctly. He had intended to send me the books. This poor guy is not too well glued together.) He asked if we could meet on Sunday at two and Monday at four, starting next week. Sure. Neither girl is in desperate need. W could possibly use some personal help dealing with the new school situation. Meanwhile, I get to read some great books.

   I came across some numbers on how fast the mind processes words. In a TED talk on 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation, the speaker said that most people speak at 250 words per minute. Our minds can process language at 500 words a minute. That’s why we have difficulty paying attention. Someone else’s speech doesn’t provide enough stimulation for our minds. Now, 500 words a minute refers to our ability to understand someone else’s words. According to Ethan Kross in his book Chatter, our working memories, or unconscious mind, produces words at the rate of 4,000 a minute. He said a 6,000-word speech takes about an hour. Wow! This has major significance for me, comparing our ability to deal with new information, someone else’s speech, versus the processing of our thoughts. When people say they don’t decode language when they read, my response is, “How the hell would you know? Your thoughts whiz by at 4,000 words a minute. You have no idea what your mind is doing.” Neuroscientists are trying to figure it out. 

   I continued watching Indian Matchingmaking. It was wearing thin. I wanted to see what happened to that one fellow who had to tell the woman he was matched with that his father was in jail for putting a hit on an ex-wife. That would eliminate him from the ‘good family’ category. I liked this guy and wished the best for him. My best guess was his story was dropped from the show because the outcome was not good when he told his potential bride the circumstances of his life.