Archive » November 2015 » Columns

by Dennis Sullivan

The first Christmas card extends the parable of love in Greek Scriptures as well the parable of transformation found in Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.”

When I was 12 and an altar boy at St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church, on my way to serve midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, I looked intently at the winter sky in search of the Star of Bethlehem.

I learned about the Star in catechism class and grew to believe that it returned every year and that, finding it in the darkness of night I, like the Magi of the first Christmas, would find the heralded child born in a manger.

The Christmas carol, “We Three Kings,” which my family sang and was played incessantly on the radio, said so:

 

O star of wonder, star of night,

Star with royal beauty bright,

Westward leading, still proceeding,

Guide me to thy perfect light.

 

“Still proceeding.” It meant the star came every year for every believer to see.

Within 10 years, in college courses on the Greek Scriptures (the New Testament), I was introduced to concepts such as “form criticism,” “redaction criticism,” and Midrash.

These methods exhorted that, in reading Biblical texts, it was critical to define the literary form and historical context of biblical passages in order to understand how the redactor (editor) shaped the narrative to express certain theological truths and reveal the purpose of his writing.

In the case of the narrative of Jesus’s birth, I found out there were two stories, one by Matthew the other by Luke, and that they did not put forth the same facts, in fact contradicted each other. I was disedified: How could there be a discrepancy in the Bible?

I was told the stories were parables — as Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan explain in “The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth” — stories that might not be factual but nevertheless contain deep truths. A Joe Friday “Just the facts, ma’am” approach would not get at the truth.

In examining the Christmas stories critically, I had to conclude there was no manger, there were no swaddling clothes, there was no “star of night” to lead me to the “house” or “stable” — the two gospels differ on the location of the event — so I stopped looking for the Star of Bethlehem.

But there was a subversive quality to the new thinking in that, when the seeker of truth hears the angels (metaphoric) sing “peace on earth,” that person feels called to become a person of peace, which might include taking a stand against corporate, military, and religious institutions that initiate, thrive on, and profit from war.

In singing carols such as “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” the person of conviction receives the truths contained in the Scriptural narrative and elects to chase away the darkness without fear, indeed becomes the announcing angel singing, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

The great joy is that another soul has chosen to live a different kind of life, to create a different kind of world, one in which poverty and injustice are confronted and steps taken to eliminate them.

A while back, it struck me that that was what Dickens was talking about in “A Christmas Carol” — my favorite (and only) childhood book — when the Ghost of Christmas Present forces Scrooge to look upon two emaciated children, a boy called “Ignorance” and a girl called “Want.”

The spirit warns Scrooge, “Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom unless the writing be erased.”

But ill-sighted Scrooge could not accept personal responsibility for erasing the conditions that gave these children currency, exclaiming in write-off fashion: “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

As the night progresses, as lovers of the story know, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come projects for Scrooge personal destruction that will occur — the death of Tiny Tim — without his involvement in the lives of others. Scrooge of course undergoes a transformation and becomes Tim’s “second father.”

The 19th-Century novelist Margaret Oliphant described this book of metamorphosis as “a new gospel.” claiming that it did in fact make people better.

“A Christmas Carol” came out in 1843 and reflected Dickens’s real-life experiences with the poor and downtrodden. The book’s plot was conceived during the author’s three-day stay in Manchester, England witnessing the poverty and human degradation inflicted on the “dregs” of the citizenry.

I do think it more than coincidental that during 1843 the first worldwide commercial Christmas card was produced. Inventor Sir Henry Cole commissioned artist John Callcot Horsley of the Royal Academy in London to design a card that people could send to family and friends to wish them Merry Christmas while reminding them of what the December birthday stood for.

In its own right, the card is a kind of gospel, a parable that tells a story far more complex than the cards bought, signed, and sent today.

In the Horsley original, a family has gathered together to offer a toast to the person looking at the card. The gathered friends are facing the recipient with their glasses held high looking not sad but not exuding merriment.

On the card, to the right of the family is depicted a woman with a child being clothed by a compassionate older woman standing above them, and on the left is a man serving food to an old person and a child dressed as commoners.

Let those who make distinctions between the sacred and profane play games that split the world in two. When I saw the card, I exclaimed: Look! It’s the Star of Bethlehem!

The star shines in the family greeting its loved ones with a cup of caring wine and in the reminders offered, left and right, about how to defeat Ignorance and Want.

It is a continuation of the parable of love found in the Greek Scriptures as well as in the parable of transformation found in “A Christmas Carol” where angels and spirits respectively sing strains of peace and good will.

And such transformation is not the property of a particular sect of believers; it belongs to every soul who faces the dark night of winter. It might not contain a manger or swaddling clothes or shepherds watching their flocks beneath an open sky but it does reflect a world where the pain of those in need has been taken into account and eased, if only slightly, by human beings committed to angelic peace.

Under such circumstances, the darkness of death hasn’t a leg to stand on because it’s a death-defying birthday, a birthday that belongs to every soul far and wide who looks up in the midnight sky in search of the Star of Bethlehem.

Post date: 
November 27, 2015

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by John R. Williams

— Photo by John R. Williams

The Hilltown Café in Rensselaerville shares a building with the post office.

Tuesday, Nov. 17, the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Hilltown Café in Rensselaerville.

The OFs enjoy coming to the Hilltown Café and for some it is a hike, and for some it is just on top of the hill. The car pools are as much fun as the breakfasts, and the way the restaurant rotation works out most of the OFs have short rides, then medium rides, and then longer rides. It is only fair, Magee.

One OF told about his information, which he has garnered from research, on the genealogy of his family tree. The OF said what came up in his trek down the family path can be quite interesting at times when the paths of history comes up along with the family research.

Another OF is a member of a church that performs this research for many people.  This information can be done for anyone; it is not necessary to be a member of this church. According to this OF, the church’s collection and resources for genealogy is one of the best sites for obtaining information on a particular family in the country.

The first OF related that he has traced his mother’s side of the family back to a Celtic tribe in Ireland and there he thinks he has run into a dead end because going back this far (especially Celtic tribes) just staying alive was more important than keeping records of who was who.

Magnetic phone poles?

The OFs were making an observation that many people have made. The OFs think that telephone poles have magnetic properties. Many stories were told of vehicles of all sorts running into telephone poles.

One OF said that were he lives the road is as straight as a string and along the road are telephone poles; nothing in between them except grass and brush, there isn’t even a deep ditch or culvert.

“Yet,” the OF said, “inevitably, vehicles will zip down this road and smack a pole, from ATVs to cars, to trucks, to motorcycles.  The only thing that has not whacked a pole is a tractor and wagon. It’s like the poles have arms and hands.

“If the pole wants a little excitement, it just reaches out and grabs whatever is going by. It’s like trying to throw a small stone through a chain-link fence; invariably, the stone will hit a wire while the space between the wires is 10 times the size of the stone. Go figure.”

Green guy

One of the OFs has a completely electric car, which this OMOTM report has written about before. That report told a lot about the vehicle and how far it will go on a charge, etc.

However, on Tuesday, the OFs learned that not only is the car totally electric but at home the OF has solar panels on his roof. The OF says that with these panels he charges the car for free.

With this little setup, and the price of gas, the OF is going have the car and panels paid for faster that you can blow your nose. By the time the hanky is placed back in the pocket, the system belongs completely to the OF — no more payments.

Built to last

The subject comes up quite often about the OFs’ homes, and the home repair — the discussion can be on a minor or major project underway. Tuesday morning, the conversation was on the construction of some of their older homes, especially when really delving in and attempting a modernization or adding a room, or bathroom.

What the OFs will find when they begin tearing down a wall that has been there 100 years or better, can be anything: horsehair plaster that clings to every lathe, spacing that is anything other than 16 inches on center, studs that can be a full 2x4, to even 3x4 or 4x4, or anything close was OK.

They might find studs that can be fish-plated if they weren’t long enough to reach the plates or maybe one nail holding a board, or overkill with 10 nails. They may find completely debarked logs for floor joists at random spacing. These homes are still standing, functioning as they should.

The newer homes, the OFs feel, will not last anywhere near the time this old, basically haphazard, type of construction has proven it will. One OF mentioned that he lives across from a new home with new materials and, within six months, they had to do extensive repairs. Not remodels — repairs.

“But,” one OF said, “what one of us is going to be around in a hundred years to see what these newer homes, with the newer materials will be like?”

Another OF said, “Any home, new or old, has to be properly maintained or it won’t last 30 years.”

A third OF said he would like to live long enough to see homes constructed out of composite materials like those used in airplanes. This OF said, when he goes to build something that requires 2x4s, most of them could be strung with string and used as a bow for a giant’s bow and arrow.

Someday, this scribe mused, homes will be constructed with walls and roofs out of composites, with solar collectors built right in and all directed to a central WiFi system so no wires will be required.  These homes will be heated with microwaves, and cooking and hot water also completed with microwaves. Each home will be its own energy source.

Can happen, this scribe thinks. All waste material will be microwaved and turned to vapor or dust. Can happen. There are probably better ideas out there right now by smarter people than this scribe.

Those OFs who left their humble abodes (no matter how old these abodes are) and some OFs who are still living in tents, made it to the Hilltown Café in Rensselaerville, and hitched their horses and wagons to the hitching post, were: Miner Stevens, Dave Williams, Roger Chapman, Robie Osterman, Frank Pauli, Harold Guest, John Rossmann, Lou Schenck, Jim Heiser, Chuck Aelesio, Glenn Patterson, Mark Traver, Jack Norray, Wayne Gaul, Jim Rissacher, Elwood Vanderbilt, Mike Willsey, Ted Willsey, Harold Grippen, and me.

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Post date: 
November 25, 2015

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by John R. Williams

Not only the Old Men of the Mountain can’t beat this weather with a stick we are having in the Northeast, but everyone can get on the bandwagon and not beat this weather with a stick. On Nov. 3, the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Chuck Wagon Diner in Princetown.

This scribe will continue about the weather because getting out of the vehicle in the parking lot of the Chuck Wagon’s parking lot was surreal. The sunrise, the feel in the air, did not seem right; this scribe felt he was someplace else; this is November?

The OFs gave the waitress at the Chuck Wagon a break because there were not many OFs at the breakfast.

One has pneumonia but is now on the upside; four have just returned from Las Vegas; one is in Aruba; three were on the wrong time, and just couldn’t get up, so the drivers went on, leaving them home; two were working the polls; one was running for election and was working hard; one was on a trip with the kids; and one was at the doctor’s office after a tick decided this OF was a good place to call home.

As is often mentioned the OFs are old but do have places to go, people to see, and things to do. Only at the breakfast are most of the OFs sedentary.

Where have all the earwigs gone?

A new topic for the OFs at the breakfast was bugs.

Not only have the OFs noticed a decline in wildlife (like deer, rabbits, raccoons, porcupines, turkeys, and some birds and bats), the OFs have noticed that some bugs seem to have vanished, like earwigs.

Fifteen to 20 years ago, the OFs never saw an earwig, let alone knew what that nasty-looking bug was, and then all of a sudden they were here. Turn over a piece of wood, lift up a flowerpot, pick up the water dish for the dog outside and there they were, scurrying all over the place.

Now they seem to have gone for the most part. This year, nary a one. But these, unlike the wild animals, have been replaced with others like the box elder, and the stink bug.

Now where did they come from? The OFs wonder, if they have been here all the time, where have they been hiding? Particularly the stink bug, that thing is aptly named. Squash one of those bugs and you will know it.

Plenty of nuts

This is also a year the OFs notice that many trees have an abundance of fruits and nuts and even pine cones. One OF reported that his oak tree has the lawn so covered with acorns it is like walking on marbles.

Then another OF said that on his walks in the woods he has noticed that under one oak tree it would be like the other OF said, but under one right next to the first tree, practically nothing is there, hardly even one acorn. This OF said he thought this was odd.

The hickory nuts from the hickory trees are also falling from the trees like rain. Hickory nuts are all over the ground like the acorns.

One OF thought it has been a different year. The trees changed color in our area very late, by almost two weeks.

Another OF threw in the comment that the tour buses that bring people to see the color were going to miss it; the leaves would still be green. Now, instead of frost on the pumpkins, the dumb things are still growing.

“That is not entirely true,” one OF said. “We have had a few killing frosts.”

“Yeah, only in the really open areas,” another OF said.

With his plants, he noticed that, if the plants had any kind of protection at all, they are still green, and the grass is still growing.

“We are going to pay for this,” an OF said.

All the OFs thought this OF was right.

Tough jobs

The OFs talked about the current dilemma of being a police officer. One OF thought that the press and most all of the media are presenting the news in such a fashion that it is painting all police officers with the same brush as the few bad ones.

Many people forget, the OFs thought, that police officers deal with the dregs of society day in and day out and are on edge from the time they go to work until they go home. It takes a certain type of person to be a police officer, or to work in a nursing home, or even to work in a children’s hospital where many are dying of cancer and other diseases.

One OF said, “Give me a shovel and let me dig a ditch because I don’t think I could do these other jobs.”

Those OFs who were still around and had the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful beginning of a beautiful day and started it out by heading to the Chuck Wagon in Princetown were: Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Bill Lichliter, (whose name was entered incorrectly last week; this was to protect the innocent) Roger Shafer, Henry Whitt, Gerry Irwin, Wayne Gaul, Harold Guest, Bob Fink, Bob Benninger, Ted Willsey, Mike Willsey, Elwood Vanderbilt, Gerry Chartier, Harold Grippen, and me.

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Post date: 
November 14, 2015

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by Frank L. Palmeri

You might want to mark down this day somewhere, because I'm going to give you a tip that might make your life much more enjoyable. Sadly, it's nothing life changing like how to pick Lotto or how to lose weight while eating everything (I wish). But this little tip has certainly made my life immensely more enjoyable, and I'm hoping you'll enjoy it as well.

It all started when I decided that one of my life's goals is to visit every major city that starts with the letter T. Why T you ask?

Well T is a very cool letter — just a simple horizontal and vertical line. That's good enough for me.

So I started my quest by going to Toronto and thoroughly enjoying it. Toronto is a world-class city that is vibrant, clean, and full of fun things to do. Can't wait to go back.

The next big T city I want to visit is Tokyo, which is going to be tough since I don't like to fly but I'll figure something out. From what I've read, Tokyo is another beautiful city rich in culture. Looking forward to that trip immensely.

Thinking about Tokyo got me noticing things related to Japan, including  ads in magazines for author Haruki Murakami. I read a lot and I have a reading list a mile long, but something clicked and I decided to give him a try. Good move, because he is really, really good. This is where my tip comes in.

If you've ever:

— Been in a big, crowded city yet felt totally alone;

— Had your heart broken, leading to intense, almost physical pain;

— Wondered what 16-year-old girls think about;

— Experienced a devastating loss;

— Awakened from a dream and had a hard time telling if the dream was real or not;

— Felt that women look best in a simple dress with little or no makeup;

— Had trouble finding meaning in your work;

— Felt like sitting in a deep dry well or a silo all by yourself, just to think; or

— Wondered why calculus is easier to comprehend than relationships —

then you will like reading Haruki Murakami very, very much.

Listen, this guy is the real deal. His latest book sold one million copies in its first month in Japan alone and has been translated to over 50 different languages. When it comes to good old-fashioned books in this day and age, that is just off the charts.

The thing about reading a Japanese author like Murakami is by necessity you have to read a translation. There are always tough choices translators must make — ask any Biblical scholar.

Often you're not sure if you're getting the right nuances as the author intended. In addition, one of Murakami's books was too long when it was translated, so entire chapters were omitted and others were rearranged. That's too bad for us but it is what it is and these books are still awesome.

Here are the Hiroshi Murakami books I've read so far:   

— "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage": This is his latest blockbuster, about a guy who in high school had four close friends, two guys and two girls. These five did everything together and were inseparable.

Then one day the four won't take his phone calls and start to avoid him totally, with no explanation or apparent reason. From this simple premise comes a book that deeply and exquisitely explores the vagaries of the human condition.

I found it absolutely marvelous. Now I'm not an English major or a literary critic, so I know this is kind of crude, but to me he's like a combination of Kurt Vonnegut's sharp satire and knack of pointing out the silliness of so many things, with Andy Rooney's uncanny powers for observation, along with the sheer narrative power of Ernest Hemmingway. That's pretty good for a guy you are reading through a translator, I think.

— "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle": This one is about an ordinary guy whose wife leaves for work one morning and never comes back. Along with that, we have a missing cat, clairvoyance, World War II flashbacks, and a lot of solitary dreaming and thinking.

After reading this one, I seriously thought about digging a well in my backyard to go sit in and contemplate, but our water table is too high and I'm not a very good swimmer. This is a spellbinding book with a lot of dream sequences (or are they dreams?). A great read.

— "1Q84":  This is a sprawling, very ambitious, tome over 900 pages long set in a world close to our own but with two moons. The year is 1984 (and Orwell is indeed referenced), but it's a Questionable 1984, hence "1Q84." This one has dreams and cults and religion and much more.

While it's terrific I wouldn't recommend this as your first Murakami book since it's so long and there's just so much going on. Still, the two main characters, Tengo and Aomame, are so intricately envisioned that they stayed with me for weeks after I finished the book. That's how powerful Murakami's writing is.

— "Norwegian Wood": A 17-year-old commits suicide, leaving his girlfriend and best friend to pick up the pieces. This is the most personal Murakami book I've read so far, in the sense of how deeply he explores the most intimate feelings of each character. A very emotional and beautiful work.

— "Wind/Pinball: Two Novels": An interesting way to get into Murakami very easily is this new translation of his first two novels that was just released this year. Even in these early works, you can sense the seeds of greatness.

In the introduction, he tells about being at a baseball game and realizing, literally at the crack of the bat, that he could be a writer. He also tells about starting out by writing in his very limited English, and then translating that back to Japanese. He thinks this process allowed him to find his unique writer's voice. However he found it, it's very lucky for us that he did.

I've read some reviews of Murakami's work and there's the constant comparison to Kafka because of the recurring theme of alienation in modern society. I can see that, but until he has a character wake up as a giant insect, I prefer to think of his work as uniquely his own.

What other Japanese writer has had this kind of success in the West? No matter who you compare him to, he's still a great read, and that's all that really matters to me.

There has been a book about de-cluttering by a Japanese writer on the New York Times bestseller list for weeks and weeks ("The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo), so, in that spirit I've been taking out the Murakami books from the library instead of buying them.

There is often a long wait for his books since they are popular, so when the library finally calls I get real excited, drop whatever I'm doing, and run down there. Then it's no TV or even music until I read the whole book cover to cover.

There are around a dozen Murakami books and I can't wait to get to them all. You gotta love your local library.

I wanted to pick out just one Murakami sentence from the thousands I've read at this point to give you an example of the sheer beauty of his writing, so I chose this one, from his short story "Kino": "Like dry ground welcoming the rain, he let the solitude, silence, and loneliness sink in."

That sentence just takes my breath away; simple, exquisite, and beautiful. If I could write like that, I wouldn't have to spend all day playing around with computer databases, that's for sure.

Of course, nothing is perfect in life, and I do have a couple of nits to pick with Mr. Murakami. You know how Woody Allen basically plays the same character in each of his movies?

In the several Murakami books I've read so far it seems like the narrator is just about the same guy: a simple, quite, contemplative young man thrust into some ordinary and some quite extraordinary situations.

Also, in each book the word "concrete" is used way too much, as in "Can you give me a concrete example?" or "Can you say it in a concrete manner?" I'm wondering if this is due to the translating. Despite these couple of things, Murakami's books are terrific.

Oh, one more thing — Haruki Murakami writes about people, and people like to have sex, so there are quite a few graphic and steamy scenes in these books. That doesn't bother me but if you have a thing about that don't say I didn't warn you!

It's only in there because that's what that characters call for and it adds to the stories in a good way. In fact, his female characters are so alluring that, if I ever got to meet the somewhat reclusive author, one of the first things I'd ask him is which one of them he'd date if he could.

So there's your tip. If you're looking for a good read (and why wouldn't you be?) try Haruki Murakami. You won't be disappointed.

Post date: 
November 14, 2015

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by Regina DuBois

According to a recent American Association for Retired Persons study on caregivers, New York State ranks fourth in the nation with 2,670,000 caregivers. California, Texas, and Florida are first, second and third, respectively. Caregivers are defined as unpaid family members devoted to a loved one.

In 2013, family caregivers in the United States provided 37 billion hours of care. These figures are based on an average of 18 hours of care a week at an average of $12.51 an hour. So, in economic terms, the value of family caregiving is $470 billion.

These numbers are staggering. And, as we all know, they will rise substantially as the first wave of baby boomers become loved ones in need instead of caregivers.

Family caregivers can be considered hidden heroes who often work many hours without recognition or acknowledgment. Without these hidden heroes, many more older adults would require expensive nursing-home care.

Caregivers often find themselves thrown into a situation without warning: 60 percent of caregivers had a full-time or part-time job.

Caregivers must also learn a whole new set of skills to properly care for their loved ones. Just keeping up with doctors’ appointments and medications and keeping your loved one safe and comfortable can be overwhelming. Finding the resources available to you as a caregiver is vitally important.

Most caregivers and their loved ones prefer to stay in their homes and in the community where they have lived for many years. Those individuals in Guilderland, Bethlehem, New Scotland, Berne, and Knox have a wonderful resource available to them through Community Caregivers.

Community Caregivers volunteers are trained to assist in many different ways: provide transportation to and from doctor appointments, provide respite visits, pick up prescriptions, go grocery shopping, and do household chores.

A memory-loss support group meets twice a month for caregivers caring for individuals with dementia or other types of memory loss.

If you are providing care for a loved one, the numbers in the AARP caregivers study show that you are not alone. You should not be embarrassed or afraid to ask for help. Please contact Community Caregivers at 456-2898 so we can help you.

For those who are not caregivers but know of someone who is, November is National Caregivers Month. The best gift you can give is to offer your help to one of our hidden heroes.

Post date: 
November 14, 2015

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by Regina DuBois

The annual Community Caregivers gala will be held on Nov. 14 at the Colonie Golf and Country Club in New Scotland.

This annual event features cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., silent and live auctions, and dancing to the music of The Bluz House Rockers at 9 p.m. Tickets are $125 per person and the deadline for making reservations is Nov. 2. All proceeds go directly to providing services and programs for clients, caregivers, and their families.

Major sponsors for the evening include Adirondack Environmental Services, Albany Medical Center, Capital District Physicians Health Plan, GCom Software Inc., the New York State Funeral Directors Association, PBR Printing, the Times Union, and Wells Fargo.

Community Caregivers will be presenting two awards at this year’s gala.

“We are extremely proud to honor James J. Barba, president and chief executive officer of Albany Medical Center, and Midge McGraw Bulgaro, Community Caregivers Board member,” said Edna Mae Reilly, board president. “Both individuals understand the needs of caregivers and have responded to those needs through their commitment, dedication, and actions.”

Mr. Barba will receive the Joseph A. Bosco Community Services Award. This award is given to an individual who has been a leader in community service.

In addition to Mr. Barba’s responsibilities at Albany Medical Center, he serves on the board of directors of the Health Care Association of New York State and the Park Playhouse and co-chairs Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Capital Region Economic Development Council. He has received the University at Albany’s Citizen Laureate award, as well as many other awards from Capital Region organizations.

Mrs. Bulgaro will receive the Victor G. Ross Community Caregivers Founders Award. This award recognizes contributions to the long-term success of the Community Caregivers program.

Mrs. Bulgaro has been a member of the board of directors for 13 years. She has served as president and vice president and has co-chaired the golf and gala committees several times. She is also a tireless volunteer.

Career-wise, Mrs. Bulgaro spent 24 years in state government, including the New York State Assembly, Department of Labor, and Governor’s Office of Counsel, and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

After her public-service career, she was vice president for Government Affairs for AmeriChoice Inc. Her experience and expertise have been very important to the programmatic and financial success of Community Caregivers.

Many individuals and businesses have generously donated prizes for the silent and live auction and it’s always a fun night out. Won’t you join us? Check the website — www.communitycaregivers.org — for additional information. 

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Post date: 
November 7, 2015

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by Regina DuBois

The annual Community Caregivers gala will be held on Nov. 14 at the Colonie Golf and Country Club in New Scotland.

This annual event features cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., silent and live auctions, and dancing to the music of The Bluz House Rockers at 9 p.m. Tickets are $125 per person and the deadline for making reservations is Nov. 2. All proceeds go directly to providing services and programs for clients, caregivers, and their families.

Major sponsors for the evening include Adirondack Environmental Services, Albany Medical Center, Capital District Physicians Health Plan, GCom Software Inc., the New York State Funeral Directors Association, PBR Printing, the Times Union, and Wells Fargo.

Community Caregivers will be presenting two awards at this year’s gala.

“We are extremely proud to honor James J. Barba, president and chief executive officer of Albany Medical Center, and Midge McGraw Bulgaro, Community Caregivers Board member,” said Edna Mae Reilly, board president. “Both individuals understand the needs of caregivers and have responded to those needs through their commitment, dedication, and actions.”

Mr. Barba will receive the Joseph A. Bosco Community Services Award. This award is given to an individual who has been a leader in community service.

In addition to Mr. Barba’s responsibilities at Albany Medical Center, he serves on the board of directors of the Health Care Association of New York State and the Park Playhouse and co-chairs Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Capital Region Economic Development Council. He has received the University at Albany’s Citizen Laureate award, as well as many other awards from Capital Region organizations.

Mrs. Bulgaro will receive the Victor G. Ross Community Caregivers Founders Award. This award recognizes contributions to the long-term success of the Community Caregivers program.

Mrs. Bulgaro has been a member of the board of directors for 13 years. She has served as president and vice president and has co-chaired the golf and gala committees several times. She is also a tireless volunteer.

Career-wise, Mrs. Bulgaro spent 24 years in state government, including the New York State Assembly, Department of Labor, and Governor’s Office of Counsel, and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

After her public-service career, she was vice president for Government Affairs for AmeriChoice Inc. Her experience and expertise have been very important to the programmatic and financial success of Community Caregivers.

Many individuals and businesses have generously donated prizes for the silent and live auction and it’s always a fun night out. Won’t you join us? Check the website — www.communitycaregivers.org — for additional information.           

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Post date: 
November 5, 2015

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by Michael Seinberg

If you follow some of the cooler quotes that are attributed to Buddha or other figures from Eastern religions, you tend to think, “Wow, that makes a lot of sense!”

The reason is that much of Western religion seems to be about telling us what not to do, what not to think, all the terrible things awaiting us if we don’t follow the rules, and so on. So it’s the whole punitive versus philosophical approach, at least on the surface.

However, in the interests of full disclosure, I have heard there is supposedly a Buddhist hell. I imagine it resembles Crossgates on Dec. 24 at 5 pm. At least, that’s how I picture hell.

Now, before you fire up the torches and the Twitter posts, keep in mind that I’m a nice Jewish boy from Long Island (seriously). Though I’m not really what you’d call a practicing Jew, I was raised as such, so my view of organized religion comes as a result of that. I did not grow up going to church or mosque on a weekly or daily basis, so bear that in mind.

I’ve also been anti-authoritarian my whole life, so anything or anyone trying to tell me what to do in a forceful way doesn’t really sit too well. Thus, hearing cool, interesting, uplifting, or positive ideas from other religions that are presented as ideas, philosophy, suggestions, or whatever, is simply more palatable.

Of course, the problem is that in trying to embrace Eastern philosophy, you run into some very ingrained Western thought patterns.

When I was in college, I learned to meditate as a means of reducing stress. This was way back before they tossed drugs at every problem.

There are lots of techniques, but the basic idea is to concentrate on your body, breathing, or whatever, in an effort to un-focus your mind and allow everything to just kind of settle.

The whole Om Mani Padme Om thing is just a device to get your mind to kind of empty. You could just as easily chant “I love Netflix” or “Kim and Kanye are scary” or  “Bacon is Good.” Whatever works for you.

The key is to slow the thought process down to where your mind is as empty as a politician’s promise. The reality is that we don’t do empty mind well in the West. Actually, we kind of suck at it.

We’re always being bombarded with input, visual and aural stimuli, smells, and so on. You have to make quite an effort to just find a place quiet enough to meditate.

You also have to turn off your phone, which pretty much excludes most of the current population of the United States. Most smart-phone owners view such an act as about equal to doing without oxygen for a couple hours. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say you shut off the phone, found a quiet spot, and got into a physically comfortable position. Now you need to clear your mind and focus on your breathing.

Each time you breathe in, say “one” inside your head. Breathe slowly and steadily.

Wait, did I turn off the washer? Did I unload the dryer? What am I making for dinner? Are the kids out by the pool alone? Does the car need an oil change? Where is my spouse? Was that the dog whining? Wait, what was I supposed to be doing? Is that a squirrel?

See what I mean about clearing your mind? It’s like clearing one of those houses on a hoarders’ TV program. You need a mental backhoe.

So maybe meditation isn’t your bag. One major tenet of eastern philosophy is to focus on living in the moment. The idea is that much of our stress is caused by regret or sorrow about the past or worry about the future.

If you live fully in the moment, you are so engaged and energized, that many of the stressors just melt away. So let’s try being in the moment.

OK. You’re sitting at your desk. Feet firmly planted on the floor. Your computer is glowing brightly, your coffee cup is full and warm, your clothes are comfy, and your office is humming quietly around you. You are here and no place else. You are now, and no other time.

Wait, isn’t there a meeting in 20 minutes? Is the PowerPoint ready? What will I have for lunch? Wait, don’t I have to stop by school for a teacher meeting after work? Did my spouse take out that trash? What was I supposed to be doing? Living in the moment? Which moment? That one? The next? I’m so stressed!

OK, so we’re not really batting .1000 here. Personally, I find living in the moment, meditating, being mindful, and all the other Eastern practices very tricky to master, due simply to the nature of Western civilization; such as it is.

The messages we are fed every day are mostly designed to sell us things or change our way of thinking in order to sell us more things. Those messages employ fear as a major motivator plus greed, envy, superiority, and pretty much any and every other negative feeling and emotion you can dredge up.

Thus, in order to live a more Eastern existence, you kind of have to ignore or remove yourself from a lot of what passes for normal society these days.

This is why Buddhist monks tend to live high up in isolated monasteries without cell service, high-speed cable, or even electricity, in some cases. Their daily lives involve meditating, cleaning, cooking, eating, and sleeping. Their lives are simpler, slower and designed to encourage contemplation. And they are rarely called on to prep a PowerPoint.

The bottom line is that Eastern philosophy has much to teach the Western mind. The key, at least in my muddled mind, is to embrace what you can, when you can.

It’s like healthy eating habits for the mind.  We all know we should be eating more veggies and fruits, leaner meats, more complex carbs, and fewer sweets. Of course that doesn’t help you as you stand at the brunch buffet eyeing the six pounds of fresh bacon, two-foot mound of scrambled eggs, and the made-to-order Belgian waffle station.

In the end, trying each day to slow down a little, be a little more grounded, meditate for a few minutes when we can, and care less about the future or past in favor of the present are all good steps. The sum total could actually change your life in positive ways. But, at the same time, a little bacon never killed anyone, just so long as you don’t eat all six pounds.

Editor’s note: Michael Seinberg says he has been interested in Eastern philosophy, meditation, and mindfulness long before there were apps for it.

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November 5, 2015

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