February 7th, recollecting back to February 1

February 7th, Tuesday 2006

I overslept a bit, had a sore throat, but life moves on. Jumped out of bed and did the letter of revisions for William Meyers at NY Spirit from 10 to 10:50 then emailed them, spellings and fact checks on the Stories of the Sacred meets Global Warming feature. I also rewrote some sections. I felt it went well. I got an email from Adrian Calabrese, author of several books for Inner Traditions accepting my offer to share a pizza and catch up on business. I used to be Adrian's business consultant. Now Adrian is doing Barnes and Nobles signings like I am, and I recommended Danbury. This new book is on "getting what you want in life" which I know will sell itself. My books are on the hardest subjects in the world, some of it is about "you can't always get what you want" (to quote the superbowl star Mick Jagger) but I work them and get them off to school like so many school children. "I never turn down an offer for free pizza" was a way of getting what you want. Adrian is an intelligently conversant person, a good and effective minister whose services I have attended when I needed my own jumpstart. I helped develop and market A's "love your life seminars" series a few years ago.

I jumped in the shower and hurried out the door. It was a cold morning. I went to my shared office and met Dr Marsand for the first time. He said I should be the one to remove the computer tower from the table, and showed me the brace on his right wrist. I laughed and showed him the brace on my right wrist. I asked when he sprained his, he said a week ago. Mine was ten days ago. Weird. I sorted papers, and realized if I held on to the global warming reports I could type up highlights and share them with William for the article and use them in class. Made it to class, but it was hard to talk at first. Todays talk was about Taoism. I handed back the Iceman papers, and handed around the list of modern Algonquins and had two students hold up the big Algonquin territories map because I couldnt find the tape. I talked a little about the ancient history (pointing to the map) and how it related to the Wappingers of our region. I did not mention yet that we were sitting on Fox Point, hence the name Red Foxes. I'll save something in the tank in case I need a home run.

We did a class discussion based on reading Mary Pat Fisher's text on Taoism. Very slow responses! We outlined a few beliefs and practices, and then definitions, then in the last minutes, the various terms in various world cultures with similar meanings. Damma, Dharma, Dikaion, Ma'at, Fi Rhinne, Red Road, Mitzvot, Shari'a, etc. They all mean the right way, all are interpreted on three levels. Class went fast. I said there are alot of Mitzvots listed, I think 631. MR raised his hand and said 613. That was the right answer. I listed those listed in Native American Stories of the Sacred (NASS) words for "the way" and emphasised The Red Road as the Way of Native American culture. Every culture has a way, a Tao, and all speak of it in similar ways, but the words are different. I assigned each student to do an internet search on only one.

I reminded them of my "Enron" rant, that if one person from Marist grows up to be CEO of a new Enron, people will say "Where did they go to school," then pointed out that James Smith, their classmate, who was absent, had made national news on Sunday by shooting 27 points against first place Iona College. I said "While we were all sitting back in our chairs sipping beers and watching football, he was breaking records and making headlines in the New York Post, Daily News, and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Some day people will say, "Where is Marist College? Is that a good school? Oh yeah....James Smith! Must be good!"

Of course he wasn't there to defend himself. The fact that he was absent didn't help my point. If he were he might have been embarrassed. Jared Jordan, who was also in all the papers for a triple double, was also apparently at a game going on somewhere.

WG is coming up with lots of stuff. I had mentioned last week that archaologists started to find signs of cancer only after the introduction of corn to our area in 1000 AD. He said there had just been proof of that, that corn oil causes cancer, and produced a report in a few days. I read the report later today, it was quite conclusive and shocking.

Today WG said that Gary Cooper Gnewt Rockne, and a General Thunderchild were all Native Americans. I didn't know that.

I told the story of Jim Thorpe hitting homers in three states in one game.
I had brought Ishi Last of His Tribe in case my throat gave out, but it didnt.
I worked on the baseball website afterwards, on the class computer, and redid the intro version of the Worst Mets Game Ever Played, with an eye to graphics. I was surprised how well it worked out. I am learning new computer skills all the time, my goal for 2006. Then CT came up and sat down and we talked. She had Mozarts Requiem in her hands, but was talking with gusto about her Values in Literature course (in this room!) The Marist chorus is singing the Requiem in June at Carnagie Hall. A great conversationalist. Later I ran into her in the lunch room and she remembered my name. She said there was a Pritchard in a movie from 1957. I had never heard of the movie but asked if she had seen Dead Poets Society with Robin Williams; there is a Pritchard mentioned. In the car I checked messages, some from Ellis, and talked to DLP for a minute, told him to check the new graphics out at the baseball site. He was in the lunch room. It was sunny in the car. I got a call from Diane De Cello, at the Ellenville Library and history center, who said she was also sick today. She moved my submission deadline to Valentines Day. Does she want it delivered in person? I wonder? She sounds more interested and motivated to have me as a guest speaker for the 200th anniversary of Warwarsing's cityhood. I went to the library to work more on website stuff, and I compiled all the quotes from the students papers on global warming into a sheet for William at NY Spirit.

I ran into Igor Volsky a student of Lusky-Volsky Show radio fame, and we agreed to meet at 5:30 at the cafeteria, but both were late. Cell phones are fast becoming part of life in terms of meeting people. People used to use deep psychic powers to solve such problems. He is soon to interview David Scott Hamilton from Sierra Club about Global Warming, and I said I'd email him the list of quotes, and talked to him about the latest breaking news, of which he was not too familiar, or at least didnt speak up. He was interested in the baseball blog, to my surprise, He is Ukranian and baseball is a big blank to him.I told Diego Cuenca about the baseball site too, one of my most promising former students who wants to go into sportscasting, who is a descendant of natives from Columbia. I know he is interested in global warming too, and will tell him of this site later.

In the commuter lounge I played my piano solo September Soliloquey for the first time since last year. I need to add a section I think.

I went to a computerstall and checked out MadHatter Review, an interesting "lorn of love" column by Crazy Jane who has beige rugs in her apt. We exchanged funny emails.
At the library, I went back to the same guy who showed me how to access the Times, which is great for my baseball research, and asked him to teach me how to use the scanner, and he did. I am still having trouble uploading pictures into this site sometimes. It wasnt easy but I took notes. The painting posted on todays blog, "Young Man With Pipe," by Janet Von Jappen, was scanned today, my first scan. I ran into Dan Black, the "liberal" columnist for the school paper who jokingly said things were "out of control," but in fact had some very good news to tell. He promised to come Thursday this week to the citizens thinktank. He then showed me a typed and a hand written letter written to him by Marion Weisel! My mouth dropped. He had read "Night" by nobel prize winner Elie Weisel for the first time in my class just a few months ago, and wrote a paper for me on it, discussed it passionately in class, and then he donated to the foundation, and now Marion, Elie's wife, is asking him if he would like to work for them, perhaps go to Israel or other countries to work on social ethics issues..... she said she was very moved by his letter (which he didn't have, to show me) I felt touched by history. I had more or less met Elie Weisel years ago here at school. I showed Dan this weblog in progress and showed him it was done. I showed him Dr Mar's website that I'd created a week ago, Mar-In-Calcutta, and he said he wanted me to make one for him too, on Thursday. I'm sure it will be political. (I did set up his blogsite, and he is enjoying it immensely) Dan spent alot of time as a Marine in Iraq and has a unique and balanced perspective on global politics. By the way, I noticed that Mar had been able to update her site without my help. I was proud of my mentor and student Dr Mar for making that step into the 21st Century.


I went through the complex process of moving this website to its own site, unconnected to the exigicies of baseball. I will feel more free to express myself this way, more control over who reads it right now while I am adding and subtracting. Later on I might link the two again. Everything with computers takes time. I am learning so much and really enjoying it. This global warming thing is very strange. I need a good distraction some times so I don't get caught in the tragedy of it. Scientists are saying "sorry we goofed, we did the math wrong. Its too late!" Lovelock is so gloom and doom, and I wondered what the reaction was from the scientific community so I looked through all the students' papers for a ray of hope and they all say "We agree, relatively speaking." Even James Hansen of NASA agrees. Lovelock is saying 100 years, worst case scenario. There are other scenarios, but they are all bad. There is (almost) noone saying "Its not a problem."

I am reminded of one of my earliest songs that I wrote, or you might say channeled when I was 13, "Will I see my duty when my world comes to its doom?" I never understood that line, and have always wondered what kind of duty might one have in the face of real doom? It always seemed a paradox. I still don't know.

We dont really know if Lovelock is right, but scientists mostly agree now that we are doomed environmentally and its just a matter of time, how much time, we don't know. I hope to make it alot of time and to make it count, a global renaissance. Long ago I was encouraged by Hopi elder Thomas Beniaka, Seven Fires Wampum Belt Keeper William Commanda, and others to speak to the public about the prophecies, which warn of global warming leading to a great and final war. No one was listening then, not even the people you would expect to listen.
Later, I contracted a near fatal form of Lymes disease which the Boston Globe in 1995 said was the product specifically of global warming, and bedridden, wrote Native New Yorkers which accidentally put me, little halfbreed from Maryland, in the middle of the 9-11 soulsearching time in NY, to be a leading spokesperson for native teachings and prophies (along with Tiokasin, Barbara James Snyder, and others) in NYC, worthy or not, I was there and ready to talk and pass on those teachings, and paid dearly for it. Now this, and the article to come.

I would like to see NYC lead the way in terms of green urban architecture. People will say "If NYC can do it so can we!" The problem is scientists say we have five years to turn it all around, and it looks like we won't have help from Washington. 90 million is not going to make a dent. That's less than the Mets spend in one year. I am mentioning my friend Makrand Bhoot in the article, as he is one who really knows green architecture. Dr. Mar is going to Calcutta to help the pavement people. When she arrives she will see that millions of them are now living in green-architecture homes designed by my carousing buddy Makrand Bhoot! There are lots of twists of fate these days. I am just surfing along.

Monday Feb. 6th see separate entry.
Sunday, February 5th;see February 6th entry Multicultural Kickoff

Saturday, February 4th. I had been indoors too much, but still feeing creative at the computer. I felt my health take a turn for the better. I went to the Laundromat finally, Saturday morning on a warm day, probably the worst time of the week to try it, and it was crowded, but I persisted, cleaned out the car too, and felt I was coming to a new beginning in my life. I stood against the washer and wrote out all my bills on the top of the washing machine. There were complications. There were so many errands to run, I was spinning like the clothes in the dryers. I mailed the bills (a staggering amount, I was so generous at Christmas that my father worried about me!) and some things, including Capitol Steps new wonderful CD which I sent to DLP in Florida “Four More Years In the Bush Leagues!” and sent a copy of Resonance Magazine from 1989 (the humor issue) to outstanding Scottish fiddler Alastair Frasier. It was sent open to a 17 year old review of his hallmark CD “The Road North.” With a cover letter reminding him we’d met in mid January at Fiddlers Dream concert at SUNY. The post office was open later than before. I went home and took care of some phone banking business, and it all took til about 4 PM. I finally resolved a year long struggle with Chase Manhattan bank over an evil credit card account and closed it out. This was a spiritually significant moment. I knew I had to wait for the Super Bowl party with Rick to really celebrate it. As Martin Luther King said, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last.” In fact Free Atlast, the pioneer woman conga drummer was playing in town at the Colony Café, that night, but I didn’t have the energy to go hear her.
I was so tired, I fell asleep for a long time. I got a call from Thunderbird, or I called her, and it turns out Bob “Big Rock” and Suzanne had showed up for the lecture in Quebec anyway, and I spoke with them on the phone. I said I’d never in all these years had to cancel a trip to be with my friends in Canada, but the weather made the difference. They didn’t know as much about it as I did, they just expect snow anyway as a part of being Canadian, like saying AY, eating ham and rooting for the Ottawa Senators. But they were about to get clobbered, and I told them so. Thunderbird says, “I have shop for the food already. I’m not have to go out now for days!”
I got a lot of calls that evening and didn’t do much writing or editing on The Awakening. It was pouring rain but there were many disruptions. I read Sarahs letter; she had set lines from No Word For Time to a song! She wrote, “It’s a feeling of relief to find your book. My friend Annie died suddenly of cancer. This book was hers and was given to me after she went to the spirit world.” I called and left a message on her voice mail to thank her for the letter.
The next day, when Rick and I were having our long talk about life and death what we wanted to accomplish as writers before it was all over and what would give us a feeling of (to quote Mick Jagger) “satisfaction,” and I mentioned this story. I said, “This woman inherited No Word For Time from her friend who died. Inherited it! THAT’S what I wanted to accomplish when I wrote it, a book that people would hand down to their children and best friends when they died.”
I got a call from Gordon Bailey, an old friend, and the only black UU minister I know in New York State. A very dynamic person with a lot of integrity.
I also got an evaluation report from work, one of the best in 7 years. I had been doing research on pitchers’ ERA in World Series competition, and I laughed because it was so similar, the lower numbers are better. I was finally in the “World Series closer zone” in terms of ERA. Another cause to celebrate.
Raymundo the Librarian called in the middle of the night from his night job thinking I’d be in Canada, and I was up working on some writing projects and we talked to about 4 AM. He said he could not find an American History magazine, that I’d have to get more info. They had run a great review of Native New Yorkers in November 2002, and its on line somewhere. I said I had called that librarian K, at his recommendation, about setting up programs, and we ended up talking for an hour, but then said, “I don’t remember meeting a K.” He said, “that was Kray! They are the same person! She will help you continue your work in spite of all this negative interference. In fact, it sounds like things are starting to go better for you.finally.” Indeed 2005 was a rough year, and January of ’06 I was sick and working too hard, so he was right. He picked up on what I was feeling. I wrote in my log book “A New Chapter in World History.” I hadn’t seen K for years. I said, “Didn’t Jason West marry her to a lesbian friend? Didn’t I read that in the paper?” “No, they threatened to haul his crazy ass to jail if he married them! So he didn’t, and they didn’t have plans otherwise. It was a statement!” Another New Paltz moment! K in my opinion is an emerging leader in the field of womens’ shamanic studies. She’s very smart and a dynamic speaker… A few days later I was talking to Gordon Bailey, a semi-retired black/Indian Unitarian minister about helping me put on RTA events in the city, and merging it with Gaiaism, and he said we needed a Jewish woman to complete the racial balance. I said I knew a Jewish lesbian who was a priest of Asatru! He said, “WOW!” "(Between the three of us that about covers all ethnicities!")



February 3rd, Friday I had my World Views class in the morning. Students asked me what my prediction was for the Super Bowl. I said “Steelers by Seven!” They seemed really happy. One cheered and said, “ARRIGHT!” As if my saying so would make it come true. But I really did feel a certainly about it. Jokingly, as I left the room to get some towels to clean all the yellow smear from the blackboards, (no white chalk for weeks!) I said, “...and you can put money on it!”

I had this sort of dream about James Smith, one of my students on the basketball team, that he should choose an African tribe such as the Ashanti to research for his paper, because we was going to play in the NBA some day, and American basketball is basically a black mans’ world. After class we had a talk, and I felt a little awkward bringing it up, but I did. He said, “I had the same idea! I want to do the Ashanti!” That was kind of surprising, but we kind of opened up about things. He said he had fouled and spent a long time on the bench, so didn’t get all his shots in. I gave him advice based on years of seeing student athletes come and go. I said you have to continually adapt, not just year to year but moment to moment. (After this conversation I realized that was an important lesson for us all, and incorporated it into the article for NY Spirit. I said that Adapt Or Die should replace Excelcior as the state motto.
Then the coach showed up in my classroom looking for him, and we talked a bit. I told him I had three of the team members in my class and was rooting for them. Apparently the coach then had a talk with James and answered his questions about how to make better rebounds. (Of course no advice I give is intended to override anything Matthew Brady says. Any guy with such a cool name must know what he’s about.) I continued to work at the computer there for a little bit. I checked MSN and the weather report for Ottawa was just horrible. I still felt sick from a long illness, and my wrist still hurt, and I had a car full of dirty laundry. I had so much to do, but kept working on the Mets website, on a hot streak, and worked on my Mets VS Yanks article and other projects. I went down to see Ray at the hotel at 2 AM but he wasn’t there at the time. This day was some astrological clashing of energies, nothing worked for me. Even the cell phone didn’t work, for several reasons.

February 2nd, Thursday: This morning, famed author Bill Mann called me for the first time and we talked for the first time. He is a friend of Steven Sora’s, so I had high expectations and was not disappointed, and guy really dedicated to pure research. He offered to send me two of his books as a gift. We talked for an hour about the history of masonry. Interesting guy. I also mentioned my father’s Egypt book, and he said he had some math and geometry background. I worked five hours on the Robert J manuscript, and started to get somewhere, but ran out of time. 5000 words to go. Robert's philosophy of consciousness is one of the few that is in line with modern quantum mechanics, and I think years from now will be considered very much on target and even prophetic. Info on his work can be had by writing PO Box 8, Clio Alabama.
I taught my ethics class, another great meeting, where we went over 25 reasons to honor a verbal commitment, ten things that can go wrong to force you to break the agreement, or at least tempt you, and how to do a cost to benefit ratio chart in such cases. I told the story of how I went to Daytona to meet a flight and found that the plane was arriving in Orlando. One of my students said he’d had the same exact experience once. Then we did an hour with workshopping responses to unfair rhetoric. Then I assigned the movie project. After class I met with Dr. Mar and no one else showed up for the meeting, so I created a blogsite for her at blogspot.com, and she was thrilled. It is called mar-in-calcutta.blogspot.com.
I sent a brief email to friend William Spaulding in Detroit to look at the baseball website. I posted a story dedicated to him. I got home very late.

February 1stWednesday, I worked on the baseball site into February, but the meter at the site was on California time so it logged in as January.
Sally Dennison called to tell me that it was official, that Council Oak was republishing both No Word For Time and Native New Yorkers, and soon. I talked to the accountant (Laura Wood?) about reading the royalty statement, and we were confused. Then Sally called and said the reason for the confusion is that the royalty statement they sent was the one that was returned. I got a call from Paul Zachos to tell me that he was giving me the beautiful first edition of 1492 that he had sent, by Charles Mann. (No relation to Bill apparently) The same day I got an email from an author named Bill Mann. I told him to call. He was a friend of Steven Sora, a most trusted compatriot. Were the two authors related? Guess who forgot to ask.
Today I worked on the Mets blogsite amazine1.blogspot.com. I was working on the world series pitching article, and came across the Mickey Lolich material, and wrote an article about that. Then I saw the entry in Total Baseball about Mets announcer Fran Healy and his stats, and his father and great uncle, and dropped everything to do a story on that. I also worked on the Yanks/Mets article, but held that up. And also inserted lots of pictures, really getting a handle on how to do blogs. My father told me how to say You Gotta Believe in Latin and German, and Thunderbird told me how to say it in French.
I enjoy writing for the new Mets baseball magazine, because I can write what I want without worrying about politics; Its like writing poetry for me, and I felt highly inspired that night, writing at great speed, as facts fit together matched to passionate prose for the game. I went into the Sunflower store today and saw an old man with an old Mets hat on and asked him how long he’d been a fan. “From the beginning!” He said. He said, “I was there on October 3rd, 1951.” I paused and was getting there, when he said, “Bobby Thompson’s home run!” I said, “Remember, “Gimme Branca?” “Yeah Ralph Branca!” His name was Lefty Lee and he agreed to be interviewed for my Amazine! That was a coup. I also saw network TV host Joel Cohen from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, see website!) in the same store and said hello, and wanted to ask him to come to Marist to speak to our Citizenship Watch class, but thought it premature. He said hello back and smiled and left with his groceries. I worked some more on Robert J’s stuff and on the poetics of baseball. My father and mother read through the site and said it was very literary and well written. That made my day.