Thursday, January 30, 2014

Why I Think 'Jack,' in the Stephen King novel, 'The Shining,' in My Opinion, is Stephen King

     Stephen King is one of my favorite writers of fiction.  I have read most of his books on talking books for the blind, now digital, and only available to those legally blind.
     Having read many of his books, I have also read the introductions, forwards and afterwards.  He is a sober alcoholic, sober since the eighties.  He is also a family man.  In many of his books, there is a main character who is a husband, father, and recovering alcoholic, and funny as it is, living in Maine where King is from, and a writer as well.  Basically he is writing about himself, but a writer, professor, who read one of my manuscripts, told me, it is better to write about yourself?  I mean, what better do you really know about.  I felt that American Boys, my e-book, was definitely about me.  I am a woman like Lizzy, independent, struggling, self-sufficient, who makes kids, sons like me, a priority.  Of course, had I had daughters, it would have been just as important, of course. 
     The point was that I knew more about being a mother of boys than of girls.  In King's The Shining, the character played in the movie by Jack Nicolson, remember "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," (and his wife Wendy discovering this writing and freaking out, knowing he's gone mad), is an alcoholic.  I cannot remember from the book or the movie, whether the character Jack, discovered the alcohol, or whether it was metaphysically present, because of the ghosts, but the book makes it evident that he gets drunk.  Alcohol is his issue in the book any way.  I think Stephen King probably felt like he turned into a monster when he drank, and that Jack, in the book and movie, was King having gotten drunk, driven crazy by the ghosts, the isolation, and all hell breaks loose.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Winterising Your Home

     If you live in a cold climate, and the southeast definitely is in the winter, you may have experienced home owner issues such as frozen pipes, which can thaw out quickly, and sometimes need help with space heaters, hair dryers and heating pads.
     When you own a home, whether it is an old house with bad insulation, a mobile home with good insulation like mine, a cabin in the woods, if you are living off the grid, and happen to still have running water, you may have to improvise when it comes to keeping the pipes from freezing.  Of course, the best thing is to have someone go into the crawl space and add insulation under the water pipes, but if you do not have anyone to do this for free or do not have money for a plumber, you may have to take precautions, so as not to have a very expensive and inconvenient water damage situation.  Worst possible scenario is the water pipes bursting.
     These are tips to take to keep the pipes from freezing, and to thaw them out quickly if they do.  For a long time, I thought it was the hot water you leave dripping, but it is the cold.  Leave all cold water taps, including the bathtub, dripping slightly.  Keeping the water flowing keeps it from freezing up.  You can fill the tub with water just in case if you like, but rarely will the hot freeze, but it can.  The toilet pipes can freeze as well, making it impossible for new water to poor in while flushing, and fill up the tank, requiring you to have to flush the toilet with hot water.  I guess it does not have to be hot, but I had this happen recently, and I used hot water, and I think this helped to thaw it out faster.  I did not know at first why the handle was not flushing, but I looked in the tank, and saw that the water was way down.  I went on line, and the symptoms were frozen pipes, and the cold water on all faucets, including the kitchen were frozen.  I held a hairdryer to the toilet pipes for a while.  Fortunately everything thawed by late morning when the sun came out, and the temperature had risen. 
     You can also wrap a heating pad around the sink pipes to help thaw them out.  However, to take preventative measures, you need a space heater or two, depending on the number of bathrooms.  I borrowed one from family, but I also have another small one on order.  If you keep a small safe space heater running on low, with the bathroom door closed all night, this will keep the pipes warm.  Keeping the cabinets open helps as well.  This enables heat to get to the pipes better.
     Lastly, check the whether report on your computer.  Windows 8 has an app just for that.  You can also check on your cell phone, TV or radio, not to mention news paper if you are old fashioned. 
     The other night, the toilet pipes froze in my home.  The heat would not get over 65 degrees in my home.  This is an indication that all precautions should be taken.  Like they say, a stitch in time saves nine.  We once lived in a beach front winter rental when my house first sold, in '95.  The pipes froze, and the condo owners had to send some guys to thaw the pipes in a high rise building, quite a job.  So, if you do all these things I suggest, everything should be alright.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Stream of Consciousness


     Consciousness, all there is.  Perhaps, we are born from nothing and go to nothing.  Life is about nothing really, and at the same time about a lot of things, or at least you have to live it like that, and yet the nonsense becomes more evident as time goes by.
     I am reading a book called, The Drowning Girl.  You know the painting.  She isn't really drowning.  Remember Virginia Wolf, who filled her pockets with stones, and walked into the water.
     Picking friends for a party is interesting.  I once invited people to a party, Halloween I think, and everyone I invited, including myself, was involved with some sort of love triangle, in one way or the other.  Of course, my wits caught up with me, and I canceled the party, which could have been a brawl, if not worse, perhaps a cat fight.  It might have been exciting if drama is your thing.  I guess drama was still my intrigue then.
     The dogs in the neighborhood have lost it.  A mean dog attacked a little dog.  The men were shouting.  The woman was crying.  I could not see her.  She sounded like a child.  No one was seriously hurt, except the little dog needed a veterinarian, and the owners had no money, could not speak English either.
     White noise grows so loud that it swallows us whole.  I think these are thoughts that intrude on the mind.  We can control our thoughts, but the more sane, the more control one does have on one's thoughts.
      It took me ten years to clean out the closet that haunted me.  I guess I feared the pictures would make me sad.  In a way they did, but the only way was to just plow through it. 
     My ancestors hang on the walls in black and white now.  My childhood, my adulthood, my children.
      Is spirituality a show, something you display?  I do not think so, at least it is not to me.  Still, I see others displaying devotion like a theatrical event.  I am nothing, and I know that, just a bubble in the sea.  Yoga is not a spiritual display, but a discipline, a meditation and meditative movement of the body that helps to heal the body and mind, keeping one serene, balanced and healthy.  It can also help to align the chakras, keeping them open, but not too open, and balanced as well.  When the seven chakras are aligned and balanced, there is a true sense of well being in all one does, and also in one's daily life in general, such as decision making, communication, work, relationships, solitude, and so forth.  Namaste.
    

Different Ways of Seeing Your Life/ I Am Not My Story


     If we live in the past, constantly reliving and telling our story, then we are not living in the present.  I am not my story.  This is what you will learn from studying a Course in Miracles, listening to Eckhart Tolle, Marrianne Williamson, as well as other inspiring authors and speakers.
     The world is illusion, what the Course in Miracles calls the world of forms, same as what is called maya in eastern terminology.  As I always say, a Course in Miracles is eastern philosophy in western terminology, only Jesus is the basis of it.  He is our brother who holds our hand.  When we are free from the ego and illusion, find forgiveness, which equals corrected perception, which leads to atonement, which equals oneness, then we become illuminated.  The tiny mad idea was that I am separate from God.  Illumination comes when the we realize we were never separate from God. 
     If you follow an eastern master, some of this may seem familiar.  The only difference is that there is no middle man in a Course in Miracles.  Yes, Jesus wrote the book through Helen, but it is not like we follow a guru or someone who claims to be God. 
     Back to the way we see our life, I am not my story.  I am beyond that.  If I live in the past, I cannot be mindful in the present, which is eternal, which is all there truly is. 
     When we have changes, including loss such as divorce, death of a loved one, loss of a friendship, either a drifting apart or a realization that the friendship was not healthy, rather than feeling empty, one can find a space for something new.  It is the same with the loss of a job.  Anxiety can become more of a transition, rather than fear, leaving room for something new to come.
      Again, I cannot stress enough, I am not my story.  If you cannot get this concept, than you are stuck in dead bones.  Take what you learned and move on.  Live in the now.  It is the only way to find true enlightenment, which means more happy, rather than suffering and less happy.  When you are enlightened, the suffering is less painful, because you know that it is illusion.  This is actually comforting to the enlightened person, bringing greater serenity.
    

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Reasons Why a Person Might Not Fit in in Their Community

     Obviously, I am writing this from experience, personal experience that is, but I have also done some research on the subject, because I was looking for solutions to my own situation, and reasons.  I am very analytical at times, and want to break down the cause and effects.  Recently, I was trying to analyze a friend's situation, and she said it was really nice that I thought so rationally. 
     Anyway, this is what I know from my research and experience.  If your belief system is different from those you have grown up around or live around, or have spent much time around, because you yourself changed for any reason, this can be part of it.  For example, if all your friends are Jewish and you joined the Methodist church, family included might ostracize you.  However, you might not fit in at church either, because your background. 
     Another thing that can set a person apart is a disability, blindness, deafness, anything that makes it impossible to drive an automobile, especially in rural communities. 
     Sexual orientation can sometimes cause one to not fit in.  I have always been the intellectual, artistic type, so when I was in high school, the boys I was friends with, were mostly gay, and I was mostly friends with boys, until one day some girls in French class invited me to go out for pizza, and after we went to one of their houses to listen to Elton John's new album, the one that had Candle in the Wind on it.
     I began to have lots of friends my last year in high school and then when I went to college, but my friends were kind of artsy people too.  I belonged to the glee club, French club and drama club in high school.  I was in Annie Get Your Gun in college, where I studied art, music and some modern dance as well as the usual Biology, History, English, etc..
     So, another thing about not fitting in, and of course now I do not fit in very well in my home town, is that the place you grew up in, such as mine, may not be a good fit for you.  If financial problems will not enable you to move, like my case, it can be difficult for you. 
     I have done about as best as I can, joining clubs, groups, taking classes, but it is not easy.  Like the article Kendra Crossen posted to my Facebook page, blindness, even visual impairment like mine, can be off putting to some.  I saw a big change in people's reaction to me when I came back from the school for the blind in Columbia with a cane for the visually impaired.  I was with Alan then, so it was a little easier for me, harder since he died. 
     Well, these are the reasons I know, but I will also say that some of us like me, do not have cult mentality, and cannot be brainwashed, so I do not talk jargon.  I mean, yes and no.  I say a little bit of yoga language, ACIM language, new age, etc., but not constant saying things like, "Jai Baba," but I have my reasons for this, for my distance from the Meher Baba movement.  I just wish people would ask me why I am not into that, wish they understood or tried to.  That is all I can think of for now.  Namaste.