Our Country Finally Has a Leader

I feel a great sense of relief. Over the last few weeks, I had some hope that I would feel this way, and a few days ago, I even dared to start expecting that it would finally happen.

Eight years ago, when our current Resident was elected, I was in despair. I remember saying, "He is going to be a disaster of a president!" I didn't know how true that would turn out to be, and that it would go on for eight nightmarish years.

I've always voted for whom I thought was the better candidate, but there's always been a "lesser of two evils" quality about it. They've always been just "good enough." I approached this election with that same mindset, although I did think this candidate was better than the previous ones.

Now I'm starting to see Obama as more than that. He has conducted himself with dignity, spoken with thoughtful intelligence, and hasn't made any major blunders. He strikes me as someone who is not driven by his ego.

I hope that the people who opposed him will give him a chance. He seems to be very much a pragmatist, who will work cooperatively with people who hold different opinions, rather than pushing his own agenda.

This election is momentous on so many levels. Seeing so many promising signs in the days leading up to the election, I was finally able to relax enough to reflect on some of those.

It is impossible to miss the fact that he is the first African-American president, although I have been joking that I hadn't noticed that. ("He's black??! I thought he was Irish! I thought I was voting for the Irish guy! ~ O'Bama.") What is surprising to me is that "First African-American President" is not the headline. OK, I know it was the headline in some newspapers, but it was not mentioned in most of the headlines, and it is not the headline in the newspaper in my head. (My headline says, "Whew. We Finally Have a Leader.")

But when I do think about it, it is so amazing. Obama is just a year older than I am. Early in our lifetime, he would have had to ride in the back of the bus. I vaguely remember the civil rights era, and have seen our country evolve in its wake, often through violent events and ugly rhetoric. I know there is still racism. I was sure we could elect a black president eventually, but I didn't think it would happen this soon. I am gobsmacked.

But it is not just about how far we've come. Some of it is due to the fact that Obama is not just one of the "good enough" candidates. He seems to be in a different category. It struck me, during his victory speech, that he talked about the 106-year old woman, seeing the past through her eyes, and then spoke about what would be said 100 years from now. He has a vision that extends beyond our immediate lifetime. That is something that has been lacking in the leadership of our country, even in the "good enough" politicians.

I hope that he lives up to the promise of the extraordinary human being that he appears to be. I don't take any stock in the overblown expectations, or "deification" silliness that I've been hearing about. I'm just regarding the way he has handled everything during the campaign. I think if he just continues in the same manner, he will be not just good enough. He could be one of our Great Presidents.

I hope.

I Don't Get Daylight Saving Time

Apparently, the idea is that you can save energy by chopping an hour off the end of the day, and tacking it on to the beginning. (And in the Spring, vice-versa).

I've never gotten that. I don't benefit from the time change. Even in the Fall, I don't get an extra hour sleep. It takes me an hour to figure out how to change all the clocks, and change the battery in the smoke detector. In the Spring, I lose two hours. And both times, I end up feeling like I have jet lag all week. I'm sure I'm losing energy, not gaining it.

But the government thinks it's a good idea.

I don't like it, because it gets dark earlier now. I like to get my running done before it gets dark, especially with the weather getting cooler. I'm not a morning runner, so that's not the answer.

There's gotta be a way to turn Daylight Saving Time to my advantage for running.

So I figure, by a similar kind of logic, maybe I can get more running done, and use less energy, if I cut a mile off the end of my run, and add it to the beginning of my run. That last mile is often the hardest, after all. Might as well get it over with first thing!

In the Spring, I'll turn it around, and put the first mile at the end of the run.

Halloween Scariness

This morning, my cousin sent me one of those "getting to know you" surveys. I enjoy exchanging these with my cousin, so I answered it. One of the questions was "What are you most afraid of." She responded with something about Obama. She thinks that if he is elected president, he will do nothing to protect us from terrorists. I was not surprised by this answer, because I knew she was of that persuasion.

I did not want to give a "turnabout is fair play" answer, so I thought about what scares me most. To be honest, I'm not all that afraid. I'm deeply concerned about certain things, but I wouldn't describe it as fear.

Still, if I had to answer "what am I most afraid of?" I would have to say that it is what might happen if Obama is not elected president. I have a lot of reasons for this, which I will not go into right now.

Today is Halloween, and it's a time to think about scary things. In a fun way, if possible. So here is a fun take on scary things.

My daughter mentioned that the "Joker" from the new Batman movie will be the most popular costume this year.

I told her the Joker could never be as scary as the Penguin, as played by Burgess Meredith in the original TV series.

When I was about three or four, the Penguin scared the living daylights out of me. It was his cackle, I think. I would run to my mommy, traumatized, and she had to limit my TV watching.

My daughter is not familiar with the original Batman show, so I looked online for a video clip of the Penguin. I wanted her to see what a true comic book villain was like.

What I found was this clip of the "Batman/Penguin Debate." It turns out that my childhood fear was prescient. (And I think I need to limit my TV watching, until after the election.)

Tomato Plant Requiem

I am in mourning. Today, I had to face up to the fact that my hydroponic garden was going nowhere.

I had to pull the plug.

I lit a monkey candle, and am grieving the loss of my tomatoes that never were.

It's not Aerogarden's fault. I think I just didn't know enough about how to prune tomatoes. I made some crucial mistakes early on, and the poor buggers didn't have a chance.

I know that not all of this is about tomatoes. I am dealing with some roadblocks in other areas of life, and going through a rough patch. I have known for a long time that my tomato garden was a lost cause. But now would be a good time to make a scapegoat of my fruitless gardening attempt, and throw it all into the dumpster. Maybe that will help me though the other difficulties as well.

I will be sad for a while. I don't know what the natural grieving process is for broken tomato dreams.

Pretty soon, I will try again. I've learned a few things about pruning, and Aerogardening. When the time is right, I'll take all of what I've learned in the process, and try again. Eventually, I will grow a successful tomato.

But now, I will cry.

Banana Salad

On Monday, the community college choir I accompany had a concert featuring a piece called "Aeyaya Balano Sakkad." When I first saw the title, I said "Oh, a song about banana salad!" and from then on, the students referred to the song as "Banana Salad."

So to celebrate their fine performance, today I made a banana salad for them. Judging from what was left (see the picture), it went over pretty well. I forgot to add the sugar, and was worried it wouldn't be sweet enough for most people's tastes, but I think it turned out just fine. There is sugar in the Jello, and also in the Cool Whip. And everyone seems to be eating Halloween candy this week, so I think we have plenty of sugar in our lives.

The song was a traditional Hindu folk song, in mixolydian mode, celebrating the Diwali holiday, or the "Festival of Lights," which takes place this time of year. I am told that it actually started yesterday. So, happy Diwali, everyone!

I am almost certain that a good Hindu would not celebrate Diwali by eating Jello, so do not mistake this for an authentic ethnic cuisine. But the students seemed to like it.

Recipe for Banana Salad:

Dissolve 2 small boxes strawberry/banana Jello in 2 cups boiling water in a 9x13 pan. Stir until the Jello is dissolved.

Add 1/2 cold water, and about 20 oz frozen sliced strawberries (I used the unsweetened kind), and 3 bananas, sliced.

Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, mix 4 oz cream cheese and a package of Cool Whip. You can also add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, but I forgot to do this.

Spread it over the Jello salad. Top with pecan pieces.

Before serving, cut up 2 more bananas, and put them on top.

Recipe for spatula, in case you forget to bring one from home:

Take three plastic forks, and tape them together in the shape of a spatula.



I hope that next semester, we can sing about lasagna casserole.

The Bishop Was Here, But You'll Just Have to Imagine the Visuals!

(I goofed, and posted something that was copyrighted, and my post was removed. I'm not sure exactly what it was that I wasn't supposed to post, but I'm guessing it was a picture. So here is my post without the pictures. I also removed the links to the audio, although I don't think that was the offending content. Who knows? I wish they would have been more specific. Anyway, you'll just have to use your imagination... If I find out that the audio was ok, I'll put it back in later.)

(Later edit: I put the second musical link back in, because I'm pretty sure it's fair use. I'll be ready to stand corrected, if I get slapped again.)

(Edited again ~ I think it was the sound file after all, so I removed the link. Go figure!)

(Edited one last time ~ I added a picture I took on the day I went to practice the organ.)



Today the Bishop, Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, was in town. All of the Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of West Missouri met together at the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence, in lieu of having services in the individual churches.

I was one of several organists who were asked to contribute seven minutes to the prelude of the service.

This was rather daunting, for several reasons. This is the biggest organ in the Kansas City area, and I am not very well acquainted with it. With four manuals, and all those stops and pistons, I thought surely there would be a button somewhere for switching off the wrong notes, but I never did find one. So I included some wrong notes in my musical offering.

I estimate that there were about 1,200 people there, including a mass choir. This was actually reassuring, though. With that many people present, that means that at the very most, only one twelve-hundredth of it was about me. That kind of took the pressure off.

But another thing did make it very intimidating for me. Some of the best organists in the area participated in this service. I knew that they would be extremely accomplished and well-prepared. Also, I predicted (correctly) that they would select very sophisticated pieces of music that would showcase their skills.

My academic musical training was not in organ ~ I came from a small liberal arts college ~ and that was a long time ago ~ so I am not very well-versed in organ literature. I am a pianist who learned to play in the "close enough" style, mostly on the job. Recently, I've done some extracurricular study, but I am not in the same league with these guys, either in repertoire or skill.

When I made my selections, I knew that they would be "service music," in contrast to the more intricate works that others would be playing. I think this is okay. It was a service, after all, not an organ recital, and service music is where I live. I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not. The prelude would be a time of commotion, as people come in chatting and finding their seats, so I thought it would be nice to have some music that didn't challenge the listener a great deal. Something with clarity and good taste.

I played two settings of a hymn called "All My Hope on God is Founded," both by Michael Burkhardt. The tune itself is wonderfully irregular in its meter, and it is a good, sturdy tune that has become one of my favorites.

I recorded these with a cassette tape recorder at my one and only practice session on the organ, and will try to post the sound files on this blog. I have never posted an audio file, so I hope it works.

The first setting is pretty straightforward, but I did not do some of the things the composer indicated. I restricted myself to the limitations of the organ I usually practice on, and although the auditorium organ certainly does not have these limitations, I didn't feel comfortable doing anything different from what I do in practice. So the organ is huge, but I only played a small fraction of it! (A footnote on the score indicates that the piece quotes Herbert Howells' Psalm Prelude, Op. 32, No. 1. Coincidentally, the organist right before me played Op. 32. No. 2!)

The second setting is festive ~ an ornamented trumpet tune with lots of sparkly stuff and a couple of sudden modulations that could sound like a cheap thrill, but I think the composer did them tastefully. Anyway, I get a kick out of this piece ~ it's kind of a guilty pleasure.

I did feel like I stuck out a little, playing pieces like this in the midst of all that organ literature. But I think they were good selections for the occasion, and for the kind of organist I am. And although I was way out of my comfort zone, I didn't screw up too badly.

The Gospel reading was something along the lines of "whoever is greatest must be the least, and whoever is least shall be the greatest." In that context, I did great!

I Started an Online Running Journal

I had been keeping a running journal in a Word document, but that wasn't inspiring me very much. For some reason, I feel that it would be better to keep a record of my running online. No one except me will look at it, probably, but just the thought that somebody could makes me think "I'd better not slack off too much."

I don't recommend subscribing to it. It's not going to be very interesting. Just facts and figures, mostly, to document my progress toward my goal (5k at age 100). But sometimes I like to look at other people's running logs, and find them informative, so here it is, in case anyone's interested!

I still plan to put the more interesting things (like race reports and philosophical musings and inspirational thoughts) on this here blog.

If you are looking for the training journal blog, you can find it by going to my profile.