Thoughts for the Road - #13

Love yourself, for who and what you are; protect your dream and develop your talent to the fullest extent. ~ Joan Benoit Samuelson

Thoughts for the Road - #74

I love what running does for me. I love the time that I get just to think. I love that I'm pushing myself be it on a treadmill or in the park. I love that time. ~ Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Cohost, The View

Winter Blooms 4

True to form, ours is definitely a Saturnalia Cactus.

Ho Saturnalia!

Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by tomfoolery and reversal of social roles, in which slaves and masters ostensibly switched places, much like the Lord of Misrule in later Christian celebrations.

Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BCE to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.[1] Originally celebrated for a day, on December 17, its popularity saw it grow until it became a week-long extravaganza, ending on the 23rd. Efforts to shorten the celebration were unsuccessful. Augustus tried to reduce it to three days, and Caligula to five. These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the Roman citizens.

Saturnalia involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia) and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves.

Saturnalia was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colorful, informal "dinner clothes"; and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone. Slaves were exempt from punishment, and treated their masters with (a pretense of) disrespect. The slaves celebrated a banquet: before, with, or served by the masters. Yet the reversal of the social order was mostly superficial; the banquet, for example, would often be prepared by the slaves, and they would prepare their masters' dinner as well. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order without subverting it.[2]

The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "e-o") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn").

Winter Blooms 3

Thoughts for the Road - #21

Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running. ~ Sarah Condor

Something in Your Stocking — The iPod Shuffle Contest

Something in Your Stocking — The iPod Shuffle Contest

There are so many cool holiday contests out there right now and I have even joined in on a few. This has lead me to being able to enjoy other folk's blogs too! Check out the above link for a running related holiday contest.

Winter Blooms 2

Winter Blooms

Potential for a lot of blooms this year!

Thoughts for the Road - #87

Thank God for running. It is the ultimate detox for me, whether my poison is bubbles, a foul mood, or a bad attitude. If I combat inertia, get out, and get moving, eventually every kind of toxin works its way out. ~ Kristin Armstrong, Author and runner

Thoughts for the Road - #79

May the road rise up to greet you, and the wind always be at your back. ~ Irish proverb

Thoughts for the Road - #83

There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people. ~ Bill Bowerman

Thoughts for the Road - #40

A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods. ~Rachel Carson

Mountain View

One calm day last week.

Thoughts for the Road - #35

Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring. ~Jimmy Carter

Whistler of the North

I just heard my first White-throated Sparrow of the season! Welcome back to the whistlers of the north!

First Frost

It took scraping off good Nephthys' windshields this morning. Check your pumpkins, you may have frost this morning!

Osage October

Look up when you are out and about this time of year and watch for Osage Oranges dangling from above. They gave me a smile as I was running to the top of a grueling hill this afternoon.

Happy Goose Day 2010

“Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,
Want not for money all the year”.

Thoughts for the Road - #93

七転び八起き - Japanese Proverb

Thoughts for the Road - #25

There is something beautiful about working so hard that you are reduced to silence next to your friends. Some friendships never get to the level where silence is comfortable, let alone productive or healing. Some friends will never understand the unspoken. - Kristin Armstrong, Author and runner

Autumn Time

Two Great Horned Owls woke me early this morning. They reminded me to share this pagan chant:


Autumn time, red leaves fall
While the weeping sky looks over all
Demeter sadly walks the land
The dying grasses in her hand

Thoughts for the Road - #04

Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.- Joe Paterno

Thoughts for the Road - #30

It's my own space, my own time, when I'm just out there letting my thoughts go. It's part of my day like eating, and it's one of my favorite parts. - Louise Kent

The Power of an Image

It was 75 years ago today that Nazi Germany adopted a new national flag with the swastika. Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period and throughout the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. The word being derived from the Sanskrit word "svastika", meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck.

The flag's anniversary provoked me to research how powerful images and icons can be and I came across an interesting article by Julia Tagliere on Buzzle. She focuses on photographs and how they impact our world and it's worth reading.

The Power of an Image

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Indeed, the earliest forms of communication used were symbol-based, dating back almost thirty thousand years. By comparison, writing as a form of communication only came into existence a mere seven thousand years ago. Although a multitude of people around the world today are able to communicate in written form, images are still a necessary tool of communication for many others. A 2000 study estimated that there are 862 million illiterate adults worldwide, with some seventy percent of those adults living in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, and the Arab States and North Africa. For those people without the ability to read or write, images still serve as their primary means of gaining information, giving to visual images the capacity to communicate with those living in even the direst of circumstances.

An image can convey thoughts, ideas, or events to which words alone sometimes cannot do justice. Images can thrill us, like the images sent back to Earth from the Mars Rover missions. They can inspire us, like the photo of the American flag raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center by three New York firefighters on September 11, 2001. They can be heartbreaking, like the image of Oklahoma City firefighter Chris Fields carrying tiny Baylee Almon out of the wreckage of the Oklahoma City bombing. They can incite outrage, like the photos of the stacked bodies of Holocaust victims; they can bring us face to face with the worst inhumanities imaginable. They can bring tears to our eyes, lift our spirits, or sink our hearts. Images are powerful, and with such power must come responsibility for their prudent and thoughtful use.

In the U.S., there has always been a battle between judicious reporting (which often includes the publishing of accompanying photographs) and the public’s right to know. The First Amendment guarantees to the press the freedom to pursue its mission. Any suggestion that the press hold off on putting incendiary or inflammatory stories in front of the public is often met with cries of censorship, something no one would dare to suggest. So many times, images have served as catalysts for righting horrible wrongs (has anyone forgotten the images from the Abu Ghraib scandal?) But sometimes, an image is published and creates an unintended effect, and it is that sort of image with which the press should take more care.

For example, there appeared recently in a well-known news magazine an article about U.S. troops in a firefight Qubah, Iraq in late March. One of the images that accompanies the story is of of Qubah’s residents having identifying numerals written on their hands, while another shows simply a hand with the number written on it clearly visible. The writing of the numbers on the residents’ hands, the story and caption explain, is to help U.S. soldiers tell what part of town people were from and whether they were out during lockdown, which sounds perfectly legitimate. But the photo—what an image! The story itself only briefly mentions the assignment of numbers, but the images of the numbered hands and the residents as they receive them take up the bulk of two pages, dwarfing the intended point of the story with images that are starkly reminiscent of Holocaust survivors, their identification numbers standing out on their arms. The similiarity is chilling, especially when one notes that in the pictures, it is U.S. soldiers this time assigning the numbers.

Perhaps for many people, particularly those fortunate enough to have received enough education in order to be literate, the pictures within that story may be only sidebars, items of marginal relevance to the story itself. But for those who can’t read, or for those people around the world who may only see a picture, the story told in those two stark pictures isn’t the firefight in Qubah: the story here is yet another image of a specific group of human beings being reduced, for the second time in world history, to something less than human, to being nothing more than a number. The people shown in those pictures did not appear to be insurgents (although we are all too well aware of how dangerous it can be for the military to make assumptions about what an insurgent or a terrorist should look like); in one photo, it was a group of women and children. The reasoning behind the use of numbers, the need to create a safe environment for our soldiers once the firefight had ended, is not debated here—the issue is that the picture itself conveys a powerful image of a military subduing a group of people and reducing them to a number, removing their very humanity.

Several months ago, the world watched in dismay as the Muslim world rose up in fierce anger over a cartoon depiction that they believed had insulted their faith. It is hard to imagine there would be Americans today who would advocate censorship in any case, but that ferocious backlash, resulting from an image, should have reminded us all that there is a fine line to be walked between freedom of the press and the responsibility that the media bears as our "arbiters of truth". More consideration should be paid to the selection of images that will accompany those articles.

In a report dealing with U.S. soldiers’ continuing efforts to fight the insurgents in areas removed from Baghdad, what purpose could there be in choosing images that have so obvious a visual connection to one of the most horrific events in history? Was the visual link between a heartless Nazi tactic and a current U.S. military procedure deliberate? Was is it unintended or not thoroughly thought through? If a picture paints a thousand words, then what was it that this picture was intended to convey, particularly to those without the literacy needed to read the accompanying story?

With images wielding such tremendous power to stir up emotions, to change events, to break our hearts, to inspire us, it is difficult to see a picture of members of our own military writing numbers on a man’s neck as he sits surrounded by what appear to be his wife, in tears, and his children. Is the man an insurgent? Is his wife? We don’t know—we are forced to rely on the image, which is disturbing in its similarity to the numbered arms of Holocaust survivors. Moving? Absolutely. Poignant? Without a doubt. But necessary? No one would advocate censorship or limiting the freedom of the press we enjoy so thoroughly in this country, but there are times when the responsible parties should take a step back, and look at the images they are sending out with a fresh eye. Long after the words to that article have faded from memory, that image, of U.S. soldiers reducing human beings to numbers, will stick in the mind. Is this the image of the U.S. soldier the magazine intended to convey, or was it incidental? The answer doesn’t really matter at this point; that image is out there now and that image is what will endure. This is the power that an image inherently possesses, and as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility—the responsibility to question what even the incidental impact of a visual image may be to the world and to measure whether that gain is worth the cost.

Thoughts for the Road - #98

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. - Steve Prefontaine, American middle and long-distance runner

Thoughts for the Road - #37

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. - Walt Whitman

Thoughts for the Road - #53

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."– George Washington, 1st U.S. president (1732–99)

New Moon - Cranberry Harvest

Cranberries are harvested in the fall when the fruit takes on its distinctive deep red color. This is usually in late September or early October. To harvest cranberries, the beds are flooded with six to eight inches of water above the vines. A harvester is driven through the beds to remove the fruit from the vines. For the past 50 years, water reel type harvesters have been used. Harvested cranberries float in the water and can be corralled into a corner of the bed and conveyed or pumped from the bed. From the farm, cranberries are taken to receiving stations where they are cleaned, sorted, and stored prior to packaging or processing.

Thoughts for the Road - #28

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
Maya Angelou

Thoughts for the Road - #59

The great advantage of our sport over all others is that we don't need a ball or a team or a field, or even, according to some, shoes. We just need to stand someplace, imagine ourselves in the center of a circle, pick one out of the 360 degrees available to us, and head thataway.
Peter Sagal, a 3:20 marathoner and the host of NPR's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!

Cats, Out to the World

Miles - zonked

Birbanto - snoozing

Mooch - never quite asleep if the boys are. "Why waste good time sleeping when I haz my freedom?" she asks.

Thoughts for the Road - #48

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.” - Buddha

Hurrah September!

September begins on the same day of the week as December every year, because there are 91 days separating September and December, which is a multiple of seven (the number of days in the week).

The scents of Autumn are creeping in as Summer draws to a close. Unlike the verdant smell of Spring, September is a mix of hot grapes on the vine, parched earth and late summer flowers like the honey scented butterfly bushes.

Students and teachers are back in school. My morning runs are again treated to friendly waves from kids on school buses. My afternoons are a bit more free when I treat myself to a few rounds of DDR. Only homeschooled kids are waiting for their turn or asking to double up with me until after 3PM. Their demeanor and conversations are always engaging.

First harvests have passed with Lughnasad and Mabon's second harvests are quickly approaching. My first name reflects that of the reaper. I have sown over 300 miles this year and hope to reap a 1/2 marathon in a month. What will you aim to reap this year?

Thoughts for the Road - #64

Life must be lived forward, but understood backward.- Kierkegaard

Vicki Keith - Distance Swimmer

Vicki Keith was the first to swim across all five Great Lakes (completed in a two month period) in 1988.

Thoughts for the Road - #34

Running creates a sense of balance in my life. It's a great feeling to just get out and lose myself in a run. - Dr. Jill Biden, Second lady and college professor

Thoughts for the Road - #83

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. ~Steven Wright

Blessed Augustine of Hippo

Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies.
— Augustine of Hippo

Thoughts for the Road - #78

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

Rubies Heading South

To avoid the cold, and the scarcity of food when flowers stop blooming and insects stop flying, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds go south. Some adult males start migrating south as early as mid-July, but the peak of southward migration for this species is late August and early September. By mid-September, essentially all of the Ruby-throated at feeders are migrating through from farther north, and not the same individuals seen in the summer. This is difficult to see, since they all look alike, but has been proven by banding studies. The number of birds migrating south may be twice that of the northward trip, since it includes all immature birds that hatched during the summer, as well as surviving adults.

For a hummer that just hatched, there's no memory of past migrations, only an urge to put on a lot of weight (see above) and fly in a particular direction for a certain amount of time, then look for a good place to spend the winter. Once it learns such a route, a bird may retrace it every year as long as it lives. The initial urge is triggered by the shortening length of sunlight as autumn approaches, and has nothing to do with temperature or the availability of food; in fact, hummingbirds migrate south at the time of greatest food abundance. When the bird is fat enough, it migrates. It's not necessary to take down feeders to force hummingbirds to leave, and in the fall all the birds at your feeder are already migrating anyway. If you remove your feeder, birds will just feed elsewhere, but may not bother to return to your yard the next year. I recommend continuing to maintain feeders until freezing becomes a problem.

Many people notice that adult males migrate earlier than females, because in the last month or so there may be no birds with red throats at feeders. However, remember that immature Ruby-throats of both sexes look much like their mothers. Young males often have a "5 o'clock shadow" of dark throat feathers in broken streaks, and many develop one or more red gorget feathers by the time they migrate. Immature females may have much lighter streaks in their throats, but no red.

There is evidence that fewer Ruby-throats cross the Gulf in fall than in spring, most instead following the Texas coast back into Mexico. Perhaps the hurricane season is a factor, and the genes of many birds with a tendency to fly over water were lost at sea during storms.

There are many more questions than answers about hummingbird migration. Until technology provides radio transmitters small enough for a 3-gram hummingbird to carry safely, banding is the best tool to collect data on individual birds. But since only a few dozen people in North America - almost all of them amateurs like me - are licensed to handle hummingbirds, progress is slow and the odds of recapturing a banded bird are very low.

Thoughts for the Road - #23

Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

90 Years of Women's Suffrage

The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.

Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote, but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose. Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but strategies for achieving their goal varied. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts. Militant suffragists used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Often supporters met fierce resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them.

By 1916, almost all of the major suffrage organizations were united behind the goal of a constitutional amendment. When New York adopted woman suffrage in 1917 and President Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in 1918, the political balance began to shift.

On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.

Thoughts for the Road - #39

"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."
-Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner

Full Sturgeon Moon

Full moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior.

European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.

The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this month’s moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month.

A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon
or Grain Moon.

Thoughts for the Road - #62

You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

Thoughts for the Road - #91

Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
~ Henry David Thoreau