There was a small upper alpine lake about ½ hour away. It only allowed fishing boats, which suited Charlie just fine. He didn’t have anything against powerboats, thinking it must be a lot of fun but it wasn’t his style. Not only that, speedboats produced huge waves which were the devil incarnate to Kayaks, so Sugar Pine Reservoir was a perfect place to paddle.
When he’d first moved to the area, he had heard a few volunteers were going to transfer an old Eagles nest from a dead tree in bad condition to another tree in better shape. Using a Helicopter to do the transfer was all Charlie needed to hear to be there. A few other interested folks showed up also and cheered wildly when everything was secured and in place. They were mostly interested in the nature aspect of the whole thing, whereas Charlie’s interest was twofold.
Yea, the nature part was indeed cool but the Helicopter………oh that Helicopter… hovering there in front of him, with the very skilled pilot keeping it perfectly still. As the brave or crazy guy, depending on ones perspective, hung around 75 feet in the air, retrieved the nest from one tree, then securely attached it to the new one. The whole operation only took about ½ hour or so, which were minutes in heaven for Charlie.
He hadn’t kayaked there this year yet but heard people talking about a family of Eagles having made it their new home. This was one of the reasons he thought to go out there on the weekend, to see this year’s nesting Eagles, with their young charges. People were saying you could see their little heads peek above the nest screaming out their hunger, as their doting parents delivered the fresh caught fish from the waters below.So he loaded the Kayak on top his car with everything including lunch and pulled out very early in the morning.
The earlier the better for Kayaking, for first thing in the morning the lake surface is like a mirror. After assembling his gear, he got in the Kayak and with a couple of paddle strokes, escaped across the placed water. Feeling his physical energy propel him through the environment inspired primeval thoughts; He was free from the noise, gas fumes, and all the electronics of the modern world in this pristine environment.
As the morning sun peaked over the tree line, the water was golden glass, with the air suspended in silent haze. Snaking smoke from the campfires on the north side campgrounds drifted softly through the trees, with tendrils suspending over the water in places. It was the most beautiful time on the water, slipping across in almost perfect silence, leaving a small wake that seemed to linger forever trailing behind.
As he approached the north side of the lake, a six-foot wingspan filled his eyes as a bald eagle, trailing his shadow glided over the water, then retreated back into the sky to land on a white pine limb that reached out high over the lake. Charlie quietly floated beneath the limb and looked up into the eagle’s eyes. He paused there in silent communion with this almost spiritual denison of the wild. Her eyes were like windows into the unknowable wonders of the universe. It felt like a dream floating there in the perfect stillness, the only sounds his breath and her occasional fluffing of wings.
Not wishing to disturb her living perfection, he pushed off once more, starting on around a small island there.
Sitting four inches above the water’s surface in a kayak presents a unique perspective of the landscape both above and below the surface. He always enjoyed paddling in shallow water, where he could see the bottom. It gave him a seldom seen view to marvel at. At times he would spot a fair size fish in its natural setting.
He always wondered about the little mysterious bubble streams floating up from who knew where? How oxygen could be trapped and released from the bottom of a lake was something he always marveled at. Everyone he’d asked offered plenty of logical sounding guesses but nothing yet he felt comfortable with.
Once the motion of paddling becomes a rhythmic routine, his mind always began focusing on the details of the environment; Puffs of wind across the water’s surface, fish jumping off in the distance, frenzies of tiny insect swarms, natural etchings on the shoreline, straight from an artists palette. Then there were the varied shadings of color in the trees, the sometimes almost magical patterns of bird flights above, and the mysterious panorama of aquatic plants softly swaying below.
Every time went out, this almost forgotten Kayaking poem crossed his mind. It always amazed him to find the words still floating around his mind.
Water surrounds me, constantly,
it undulates beneath me,
its motion, soothing, gliding, lulling,
its sound so seductively, caress,
unduly stresses, it slowly undress,
paddling renews in me,
the sense of peace and wonder,
brings in the child, long surrendered,
rejuvenates the soul,
brings me back home,
where to nature's bosom
I truly belong,
paddling lets me free,
distance me from the din of society
glues my sanity,
opens my mind to creativity,
empowering my whole being profoundly
paddling is contentment,
brings back memories, carefree and pleasant
I'm one with the water, I'm in my element,
outdoors always a pure enjoyment,
nature's vista, its colors pleasurable,
its hidden bounty, its secret joy,
silent beauty incomparable.....
It always takes my breath away,
truly inspires me in no other way...
By Gina Layog
The sun had burned through the morning haze as he paddled back south to continue on around the lake. He couldn’t imagine a better start to the day. The south side contained the dam, which was installed years ago, creating the lake. He was told a few years ago the local community of Forestville bought the water rights there for the town’s water source, which had to be a great investment for the towns future water needs.
In the early afternoon, he stopped at his favorite little peninsula for lunch, with its view of the entire lake panorama. Then he returned to the boat ramp to reload his Kayak and head back home.
Each time, as he was heading back down the mountain towards home sweet home, it always struck him how lucky he and everyone else living there were to have such an incredible high alpine lake so close by to enjoy.
He just hoped it could be kept our little secret. So......shhhhhhhh.......
PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks....Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!).It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Thank You!
Well, looks like we all survived the Robbers firestorm relatively unscathed. Being one of the Spring Garden Road bunch, we learned a lot of things from this shall we say “Interesting” experience.
First of all we learned how living in the forest environment of Foresthill comes with it’s own sets of inherent pleasures and potential dangers. Having lived there over 20 years in our own little hidden in the forest utopia has been a dream come true for us. The other side of that shiny coin reared it’s ugly head on Thursday, July 12th when we came home to find our road blocked by a Highway Patrolman telling us we weren’t going home.
No amount of shocked hand waving, starving cats, important business papers, dying house plants or plaintive pleas of only having one set of dirty jeans got us past his cement exterior that night.
“Now what the @#$% do we do?” We cried in anguished dismay and body shaking fear.
That’s when the angels of mercy stepped up to the proverbial plate and saved us. Turns out the owners of the place my wife has worked at for years offered to take us into their home for the few days we thought it would take to quell the monster roaring up the mountain north of us.
So like the lost children we felt to be at that point, we slunked over to their wonderful abode, where they fed, reassured and in general gave us hope that “This too shall pass.”
Scared to death about our cats, the powers that be let us retrieve them and the few items we thought we needed a day or so later, so now our angel friends house was full to the brim with this ragtag homeless bunch they so generously deemed to help in our great time of need.
Then as you all know, that few days turned into far, far more. That’s when we learned so much more about how wonderful folks on the divide truly are. It turned out there are angels galore in our little mountain paradise.
We learned from the meetings first held at the Memorial Hall, then at the High School that the offered evacuation centers set up by the Red Cross for folks with no place to go remained mostly empty. As far as I knew or heard, almost everyone had friends, neighbors and I’m guessing in some cases total strangers who took those evacuees into their homes.
Now whatever your views about life there’s only one accurate word to call all these wonderful, giving, selfless people and that’s angels in the best sense of the word.
I would be amiss not putting a lot of others in that same category.
Obviously we all owe great debt and gratitude to all the Firefighters both local and from as far away as San Diego and points between for their dedication and service. Also all the law enforcement personnel who tried their best to keep our evacuated homes safe from the few low lives I heard they caught looting.
If that’s true, we have some lovely trees up in town plenty strong enough to hold their weight huh?
Last but surely far from least would be to thank all the aerial bomber and Helicopter pilots who made such a difference in such steep inaccessible areas.
I’m not positive but I heard one of those Helicopter Pilots is a homeboy a lot of you know personally. I’m one of those nutcases who runs outside like a little kid every time he flies to and from work up or down the divide. The next time you hear him in the air above, run outside and give him a wave.
If I’ve left anyone out, I’m sorry. As I’m writing this, I’m waiting in glee to once again sleep in my home in our mountain heaven for the first time in 7 days, so please forgive any omissions.
PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME.Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks....Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!).It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
First of all we learned how living in the forest environment of Foresthill comes with it’s own sets of inherent pleasures and potential dangers. Having lived there over 20 years in our own little hidden in the forest utopia has been a dream come true for us. The other side of that shiny coin reared it’s ugly head on Thursday, July 12th when we came home to find our road blocked by a Highway Patrolman telling us we weren’t going home.
No amount of shocked hand waving, starving cats, important business papers, dying house plants or plaintive pleas of only having one set of dirty jeans got us past his cement exterior that night.
“Now what the @#$% do we do?” We cried in anguished dismay and body shaking fear.
That’s when the angels of mercy stepped up to the proverbial plate and saved us. Turns out the owners of the place my wife has worked at for years offered to take us into their home for the few days we thought it would take to quell the monster roaring up the mountain north of us.
So like the lost children we felt to be at that point, we slunked over to their wonderful abode, where they fed, reassured and in general gave us hope that “This too shall pass.”
Scared to death about our cats, the powers that be let us retrieve them and the few items we thought we needed a day or so later, so now our angel friends house was full to the brim with this ragtag homeless bunch they so generously deemed to help in our great time of need.
Then as you all know, that few days turned into far, far more. That’s when we learned so much more about how wonderful folks on the divide truly are. It turned out there are angels galore in our little mountain paradise.
We learned from the meetings first held at the Memorial Hall, then at the High School that the offered evacuation centers set up by the Red Cross for folks with no place to go remained mostly empty. As far as I knew or heard, almost everyone had friends, neighbors and I’m guessing in some cases total strangers who took those evacuees into their homes.
Now whatever your views about life there’s only one accurate word to call all these wonderful, giving, selfless people and that’s angels in the best sense of the word.
I would be amiss not putting a lot of others in that same category.
Obviously we all owe great debt and gratitude to all the Firefighters both local and from as far away as San Diego and points between for their dedication and service. Also all the law enforcement personnel who tried their best to keep our evacuated homes safe from the few low lives I heard they caught looting.
If that’s true, we have some lovely trees up in town plenty strong enough to hold their weight huh?
Last but surely far from least would be to thank all the aerial bomber and Helicopter pilots who made such a difference in such steep inaccessible areas.
I’m not positive but I heard one of those Helicopter Pilots is a homeboy a lot of you know personally. I’m one of those nutcases who runs outside like a little kid every time he flies to and from work up or down the divide. The next time you hear him in the air above, run outside and give him a wave.
If I’ve left anyone out, I’m sorry. As I’m writing this, I’m waiting in glee to once again sleep in my home in our mountain heaven for the first time in 7 days, so please forgive any omissions.
PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME.Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks....Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!).It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Where has Common Sense gone?
I owe credit or blame, whichever applies, for this piece to a fellow business owner friend of mine (that might change, when he sees it). Just to cement his well-deserved embarrassment, his name is (Boom Boom) Don. He came to me a while back ranting about what he sees in his business a growing lack of Common Sense. Being a long time business owner and from the long of tooth generation, where exacting details, responsibility and trust were and still are everything, he told me he’s daily floored with the lack of Common Sense from both his customers, their employees and even his at times. So here ya go Don. In addition to your neighboring fellow business owners, the rest of the world will now know how grumpy you’ve become in your twilight years.
When I was a youngin hanging around the old farmstead, all us kids were expected to have a modicum of that elusive but very real quality called Common Sense. Back then, there was no need for silly laws telling us to come in outa the rain, don’t look down the barrel of a loaded gun, don’t throw gasoline in a burn barrel, don’t run down a hill too steep, don’t tell your parents no nor any number of other things. You just knew these things as part of the logic of life.For our parents, it was obvious they shouldn’t spend more than they made. In fact, if they didn’t have the money for something, they didn’t get to have it. Simple arithmetic they’d learned in the work fields of their own childhoods.They learned simple, reliable parenting skills like the adults are in charge, not the kids. Us kids learned that quickly in the time honored tradition of having to go collect our own switch from the field outback.In those simpler times, it was also OK to come in second, having learned there were winners and losers with clear distinctions between the two. If you lost. Oh well. Maybe next time.
For decades, petty rules, silly laws and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense.
Then along came the dreaded “If it only helps one person, it’s worth it” Virus. Then it’s natural strength slipped further into the abyss of the idiotic with the ravages of overbearing federal regulations, starting to be overpowered by self-seeking lawyers and activists of every nutso bearing. These nutcases crawled out of the woodwork making the decision they knew what the people needed more than themselves.
The health of Common Sense then rapidly deteriorated more when schools endlessly implemented stupid intolerance policies. Insane policies like banning teachers from consoling or especially hugging students hurt out on the playground, a teen suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch, a six year old charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate or a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student.How about requiring parental consent to administer aspirin to students but not allowed to inform parents when a female student was pregnant?
How about criminals receiving better treatment than their victims, along with federal judges sticking their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional sports? Then there’s the new and improved Common Sense like questionable regulations for asbestos, low flow toilets, smart guns, motorcycle helmets and mandatory airbags.
So in those long ago but sorely missed days, all young people were taught the Common Sense logic of gun safety, like never point it at a person, always keep the safety on and make sure your field of fire is clear. Above all else we were taught guns were innocent pieces of metal until handled by an irresponsible or crazed human, that it was the human’s fault if anything went wrong not the piece of metal.
The apparent demise of Common Sense was clearly preceded by several other long gone attributes sorely missed by clear thinking people, like truth, trust, discretion, responsibility and reason. These great things seem to have been replaced by rights, tolerance and most especially, the right to whine.
I think the bottom line is the powers that be or think they are, keep deciding every time something untoward happens, they need to make a new law, instead of trusting the innate ability of human beings to use the Common Sense we were all either given at birth or taught by our parents.
PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME.
Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks....
Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!).
It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
When I was a youngin hanging around the old farmstead, all us kids were expected to have a modicum of that elusive but very real quality called Common Sense. Back then, there was no need for silly laws telling us to come in outa the rain, don’t look down the barrel of a loaded gun, don’t throw gasoline in a burn barrel, don’t run down a hill too steep, don’t tell your parents no nor any number of other things. You just knew these things as part of the logic of life.For our parents, it was obvious they shouldn’t spend more than they made. In fact, if they didn’t have the money for something, they didn’t get to have it. Simple arithmetic they’d learned in the work fields of their own childhoods.They learned simple, reliable parenting skills like the adults are in charge, not the kids. Us kids learned that quickly in the time honored tradition of having to go collect our own switch from the field outback.In those simpler times, it was also OK to come in second, having learned there were winners and losers with clear distinctions between the two. If you lost. Oh well. Maybe next time.
For decades, petty rules, silly laws and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense.
Then along came the dreaded “If it only helps one person, it’s worth it” Virus. Then it’s natural strength slipped further into the abyss of the idiotic with the ravages of overbearing federal regulations, starting to be overpowered by self-seeking lawyers and activists of every nutso bearing. These nutcases crawled out of the woodwork making the decision they knew what the people needed more than themselves.
The health of Common Sense then rapidly deteriorated more when schools endlessly implemented stupid intolerance policies. Insane policies like banning teachers from consoling or especially hugging students hurt out on the playground, a teen suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch, a six year old charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate or a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student.How about requiring parental consent to administer aspirin to students but not allowed to inform parents when a female student was pregnant?
How about criminals receiving better treatment than their victims, along with federal judges sticking their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional sports? Then there’s the new and improved Common Sense like questionable regulations for asbestos, low flow toilets, smart guns, motorcycle helmets and mandatory airbags.
So in those long ago but sorely missed days, all young people were taught the Common Sense logic of gun safety, like never point it at a person, always keep the safety on and make sure your field of fire is clear. Above all else we were taught guns were innocent pieces of metal until handled by an irresponsible or crazed human, that it was the human’s fault if anything went wrong not the piece of metal.
The apparent demise of Common Sense was clearly preceded by several other long gone attributes sorely missed by clear thinking people, like truth, trust, discretion, responsibility and reason. These great things seem to have been replaced by rights, tolerance and most especially, the right to whine.
I think the bottom line is the powers that be or think they are, keep deciding every time something untoward happens, they need to make a new law, instead of trusting the innate ability of human beings to use the Common Sense we were all either given at birth or taught by our parents.
PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME.
Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks....
Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!).
It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Savant syndrome
Something I’ve heard about for years that always intrigued me was a condition known in the psychiatric field as the Savant Syndrome.
It’s a condition where some people have a prodigious memory of a special type, a memory that’s been described as "very deep, but exceedingly narrow". It is wide in the sense that they can recall certain things but have a hard time putting them to use.
Certain savants have been shown to display advanced skill in one or more of five major areas: Art, musical abilities, calendar calculating, mathematics and spatial skills. Socially, most savants’ often times display great deficiencies, generally consistent with Autism disorders although symptoms have been known to recede over time. Scientists have theorized that savants lack Theory of Mind.The syndrome is poorly understood. No widely accepted cognitive theory explains the combination of talent and deficit found in savants.
So these are people who often can’t talk, won’t look at anyone, seeming to reside in their own worlds, that is until directed toward their particular genius.People having mental abilities that could only be characterized as superhuman, like having photographic memory, playing music perfectly after hearing it just once, or doing complex mathematical calculations in their head but otherwise severely disabled in every day cognitive functions and social interaction.
Does the human brain have latent savant-like abilities? Does our higher cognitive functions somehow block these abilities, and why? Could all of us have savant-like abilities without the accompanying developmental disabilities and just haven’t discovered how to access them yet?Most savants are born with their abilities and unfortunately, their developmental disorders, but not all. Severe brain injuries can, in very rare instances, cause savant-like abilities to surface.
Finding all this incredibly intriguing, I scoured the Internet for living examples of people possessing these fantastical abilities, finding plenty of documented cases. So I thought I would list a few of the more interesting ones.
Kim Peek, the Real Rain Man
Even though you've never heard of Kim Peek, chances are you've heard about the movie Rain Man. Kim was the inspiration for the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie.
He was born with severe brain damage. His childhood doctor told his father to put him in an institution and forget about the boy. Kim's severe developmental disabilities, according to the doctor, would not let him walk, let alone learn. Kim's father disregarded the doctor's advice.
Till this day, Kim struggles with ordinary motor skills and has difficulty walking. He is severely disabled, cannot button his shirt and tests well below average on a general IQ test.
But what Kim can do is astounding. He has read some 12,000 books and remembers everything word. "Kimputer," as many lovingly know him, reads two pages at once - his left eye reads the left page, and his right eye reads the right page. It takes him about 3 seconds to read through two pages - and he remember everything on 'em. He can recall facts and trivia from 15 subject areas from history to geography to sports. Tell him a date, and Kim can tell you what day of the week it is. He also remembers all music he’s ever heard.
Leslie Lemke
Leslie Lemke didn't have a great start in life. He was born with severe birth defects that required doctors to remove his eyes. His own mother gave him up for adoption, and a nurse named May Lemke, who at the time was 52 and was raising 5 children of her own, adopted him when he was six months old.As a young child, Leslie had to be force-fed to teach him how to swallow. He couldn’t stand until he was 12. At 15, Leslie finally learned how to walk. May had to strap his body to hers to teach him.
At 16 years of age, Leslie Lemke bloomed. In the middle of one night, May woke to find Leslie playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Leslie, who had no classical music training, was playing the piece flawlessly after hearing it just once earlier on the television.From then on, Leslie began playing all styles of music from ragtime to classical. Like the Tchaikovsky piece, he only has to hear the music once in order to play it again perfectly. He became famous after being portrayed in national television shows. Before his health started to deteriorate, Leslie gave many concerts around the world.
Ellen Boudreaux
Like Leslie Lemke, Ellen Boudreaux is a blind autistic savant with exceptional musical abilities. She can play music perfectly after hearing it just once, and has such a huge repertoire of songs in her head that a newspaper reporter once tried to "stump Ellen" by requesting that she played some obscure songs - and failed. Ellen knew them all.
She has two other savant skills that are unusual. First, despite her blindness, she is able to walk around without ever running into things. As she walks, she makes little chirping sounds that seem to act like a human sonar Second, Ellen has an extremely precise digital clock ticking in her mind. Ellen knows the exact hour and minute, any time of the day without ever having seen a clock nor never having the concept of the passing of time explained to her.
Now with this phenomenon, some cases are unique in that the person was absolutely normal until some type of brain injury. A man named Orlando Serrell didn’t possess any special skills until he was struck in the head by a baseball when he was 10 with his extraordinary gifts seeming to be the only side effect. Could this mean once a key hemisphere in our brains are stimulated, we can all attain the level of genius Orlando posses and beyond? Only time and research will tell.
We’ve all heard at various times that we only use something like 10% of the true capacity of our complex minds, which I was hoping to elaborate on in this piece but it turns out scientists have discounted that theory as wishful thinking.
How do we then reconcile that with Orlando Serrell’s expericance and others like him, I don’t know. Like most folks who think too much, I guess I was hoping for some magic pill, operation, possibility or at least the potential to draw upon humanities full powers, for some reason hidden from us, either now or into our future in this grand experiment we call life.
If nothing else, knowing humans are out there with this Savant Syndrome, with abilities bordering on magic, allows us all to dream and that ain’t a bad thing, is it?
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks.... Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
It’s a condition where some people have a prodigious memory of a special type, a memory that’s been described as "very deep, but exceedingly narrow". It is wide in the sense that they can recall certain things but have a hard time putting them to use.
Certain savants have been shown to display advanced skill in one or more of five major areas: Art, musical abilities, calendar calculating, mathematics and spatial skills. Socially, most savants’ often times display great deficiencies, generally consistent with Autism disorders although symptoms have been known to recede over time. Scientists have theorized that savants lack Theory of Mind.The syndrome is poorly understood. No widely accepted cognitive theory explains the combination of talent and deficit found in savants.
So these are people who often can’t talk, won’t look at anyone, seeming to reside in their own worlds, that is until directed toward their particular genius.People having mental abilities that could only be characterized as superhuman, like having photographic memory, playing music perfectly after hearing it just once, or doing complex mathematical calculations in their head but otherwise severely disabled in every day cognitive functions and social interaction.
Does the human brain have latent savant-like abilities? Does our higher cognitive functions somehow block these abilities, and why? Could all of us have savant-like abilities without the accompanying developmental disabilities and just haven’t discovered how to access them yet?Most savants are born with their abilities and unfortunately, their developmental disorders, but not all. Severe brain injuries can, in very rare instances, cause savant-like abilities to surface.
Finding all this incredibly intriguing, I scoured the Internet for living examples of people possessing these fantastical abilities, finding plenty of documented cases. So I thought I would list a few of the more interesting ones.
Kim Peek, the Real Rain Man
Even though you've never heard of Kim Peek, chances are you've heard about the movie Rain Man. Kim was the inspiration for the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie.
He was born with severe brain damage. His childhood doctor told his father to put him in an institution and forget about the boy. Kim's severe developmental disabilities, according to the doctor, would not let him walk, let alone learn. Kim's father disregarded the doctor's advice.
Till this day, Kim struggles with ordinary motor skills and has difficulty walking. He is severely disabled, cannot button his shirt and tests well below average on a general IQ test.
But what Kim can do is astounding. He has read some 12,000 books and remembers everything word. "Kimputer," as many lovingly know him, reads two pages at once - his left eye reads the left page, and his right eye reads the right page. It takes him about 3 seconds to read through two pages - and he remember everything on 'em. He can recall facts and trivia from 15 subject areas from history to geography to sports. Tell him a date, and Kim can tell you what day of the week it is. He also remembers all music he’s ever heard.
Leslie Lemke
Leslie Lemke didn't have a great start in life. He was born with severe birth defects that required doctors to remove his eyes. His own mother gave him up for adoption, and a nurse named May Lemke, who at the time was 52 and was raising 5 children of her own, adopted him when he was six months old.As a young child, Leslie had to be force-fed to teach him how to swallow. He couldn’t stand until he was 12. At 15, Leslie finally learned how to walk. May had to strap his body to hers to teach him.
At 16 years of age, Leslie Lemke bloomed. In the middle of one night, May woke to find Leslie playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Leslie, who had no classical music training, was playing the piece flawlessly after hearing it just once earlier on the television.From then on, Leslie began playing all styles of music from ragtime to classical. Like the Tchaikovsky piece, he only has to hear the music once in order to play it again perfectly. He became famous after being portrayed in national television shows. Before his health started to deteriorate, Leslie gave many concerts around the world.
Ellen Boudreaux
Like Leslie Lemke, Ellen Boudreaux is a blind autistic savant with exceptional musical abilities. She can play music perfectly after hearing it just once, and has such a huge repertoire of songs in her head that a newspaper reporter once tried to "stump Ellen" by requesting that she played some obscure songs - and failed. Ellen knew them all.
She has two other savant skills that are unusual. First, despite her blindness, she is able to walk around without ever running into things. As she walks, she makes little chirping sounds that seem to act like a human sonar Second, Ellen has an extremely precise digital clock ticking in her mind. Ellen knows the exact hour and minute, any time of the day without ever having seen a clock nor never having the concept of the passing of time explained to her.
Now with this phenomenon, some cases are unique in that the person was absolutely normal until some type of brain injury. A man named Orlando Serrell didn’t possess any special skills until he was struck in the head by a baseball when he was 10 with his extraordinary gifts seeming to be the only side effect. Could this mean once a key hemisphere in our brains are stimulated, we can all attain the level of genius Orlando posses and beyond? Only time and research will tell.
We’ve all heard at various times that we only use something like 10% of the true capacity of our complex minds, which I was hoping to elaborate on in this piece but it turns out scientists have discounted that theory as wishful thinking.
How do we then reconcile that with Orlando Serrell’s expericance and others like him, I don’t know. Like most folks who think too much, I guess I was hoping for some magic pill, operation, possibility or at least the potential to draw upon humanities full powers, for some reason hidden from us, either now or into our future in this grand experiment we call life.
If nothing else, knowing humans are out there with this Savant Syndrome, with abilities bordering on magic, allows us all to dream and that ain’t a bad thing, is it?
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks.... Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Friday, May 11, 2012
American girl 12, builds 27 homes in Haiti
If there really is something called "helper’s high" - that feel-good sensation that comes from extending a helping hand to others - Rachel Wheeler is soaring.The 12-year-old Florida resident has done more to aid others than many grown-ups do in a lifetime.
Three years ago, when she was only nine, Rachel tagged along with her mother to a very adult meeting about charity work in Haiti. She listened as Robin Mahfood, from the aid agency Food For The Poor, describe children so hungry that they eat cookies made of mud, so poor that they sleep in houses made of cardboard.At the time, Julie Wheeler wasn’t even sure her young daughter understood much of what was being discussed— "until Rachel stood on a chair in front of all those adults and pledged to help Food For The Poor," Wheeler said.
Then a fourth grader, Rachel promised to raise money to build a dozen homes in Haiti."Rachel didn’t just want to help," her mother remembers, "but she said she had to help."Rachel ran bake sales, passed the can at homecoming games and sold homemade potholders at her Zion Lutheran School in Deerfield Beach, Fla. She mailed fundraising appeals to the parents of her friends and the people she knew from church. In her hometown, the Lighthouse Point Chamber of Commerce cut two sizable checks.
Through her Facebook page and word-of-mouth, a cherry farm in Washington heard about Rachel and sent along the proceeds from one of its season's harvest. Another generous donation came from a family that regularly supports the overseas work of Food For The Poor.In three short years, this little girl raised more than $250,000.
Instead of just building 12 homes, Rachel more than doubled her promise. She spent $170,000 on brand-new earthquake-proof cement structures that shelter 27 families in a small fishing town outside of the capital Port-au-Prince. The families baptized the housing tract "Rachel’s Village."Many of the new homeowners had spent their entire lives residing in makeshift homes and tents. Food For The Poor had to give instructions on how to fit a key in a lock and turn a doorknob.
Rachel’s dream now is to rebuild the local school, which was severely damaged in the catastrophic 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti in early 2010, killing 316,000 people and leaving 3 million homeless.She has about half of the money she needs to fix the Reap de Morel school in Leogane, where 200 students learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic in classrooms that have no walls, a patched tin roof and dirt floors. Mahfood calls the fact that children even attend school "a small miracle," given that most are homeless, hungry and live in a country where more than half the population can't read or write their own name.
Classrooms are partitioned by bed sheets. The school "library" is a simple wooden table displaying no more than 30 tattered books. Each child owns just a single pencil and notebook. Textbooks are as scarce as food.In a makeshift cafeteria, women spend the morning cooking huge vats of rice and beans. By 10 a.m., students are too hungry to concentrate, so lunch is served. This hot lunch, supplied by Food For The Poor, is the only meal of the day for most of these children.
Food For The Poor has worked in Haiti for 25 years. The charity runs hundreds of food pantries that feed more than 400,000 people daily and it supports dozens of free health clinics with medicines to treat thousands of children a week. Many young Haitians suffer from deadly diseases such as cholera, which has killed more than 6,200 Haitians and sickened nearly 440,000 over the past year.
Rachel has been to Haiti twice and has seen the abject poverty firsthand. "I don’t believe I can snap my fingers and change Haiti overnight," she said. "I know I have to work at it."One might call her approach mature for a 12-year-old. But Rachel isn't your typical pre-teen. She has already invested a fourth of her life to her cause."If everyone helped Haiti like Rachel, the country could stand on its own," said Mahfood. "In five years, Haiti would be a completely different country."So again, when you hear someone’s lament about the lazy no good for nothing youth nowadays in America, remember Rachel’s example and feel good about your self, because you’re one who knows the truth.
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks.... Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Three years ago, when she was only nine, Rachel tagged along with her mother to a very adult meeting about charity work in Haiti. She listened as Robin Mahfood, from the aid agency Food For The Poor, describe children so hungry that they eat cookies made of mud, so poor that they sleep in houses made of cardboard.At the time, Julie Wheeler wasn’t even sure her young daughter understood much of what was being discussed— "until Rachel stood on a chair in front of all those adults and pledged to help Food For The Poor," Wheeler said.
Then a fourth grader, Rachel promised to raise money to build a dozen homes in Haiti."Rachel didn’t just want to help," her mother remembers, "but she said she had to help."Rachel ran bake sales, passed the can at homecoming games and sold homemade potholders at her Zion Lutheran School in Deerfield Beach, Fla. She mailed fundraising appeals to the parents of her friends and the people she knew from church. In her hometown, the Lighthouse Point Chamber of Commerce cut two sizable checks.
Through her Facebook page and word-of-mouth, a cherry farm in Washington heard about Rachel and sent along the proceeds from one of its season's harvest. Another generous donation came from a family that regularly supports the overseas work of Food For The Poor.In three short years, this little girl raised more than $250,000.
Instead of just building 12 homes, Rachel more than doubled her promise. She spent $170,000 on brand-new earthquake-proof cement structures that shelter 27 families in a small fishing town outside of the capital Port-au-Prince. The families baptized the housing tract "Rachel’s Village."Many of the new homeowners had spent their entire lives residing in makeshift homes and tents. Food For The Poor had to give instructions on how to fit a key in a lock and turn a doorknob.
Rachel’s dream now is to rebuild the local school, which was severely damaged in the catastrophic 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti in early 2010, killing 316,000 people and leaving 3 million homeless.She has about half of the money she needs to fix the Reap de Morel school in Leogane, where 200 students learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic in classrooms that have no walls, a patched tin roof and dirt floors. Mahfood calls the fact that children even attend school "a small miracle," given that most are homeless, hungry and live in a country where more than half the population can't read or write their own name.
Classrooms are partitioned by bed sheets. The school "library" is a simple wooden table displaying no more than 30 tattered books. Each child owns just a single pencil and notebook. Textbooks are as scarce as food.In a makeshift cafeteria, women spend the morning cooking huge vats of rice and beans. By 10 a.m., students are too hungry to concentrate, so lunch is served. This hot lunch, supplied by Food For The Poor, is the only meal of the day for most of these children.
Food For The Poor has worked in Haiti for 25 years. The charity runs hundreds of food pantries that feed more than 400,000 people daily and it supports dozens of free health clinics with medicines to treat thousands of children a week. Many young Haitians suffer from deadly diseases such as cholera, which has killed more than 6,200 Haitians and sickened nearly 440,000 over the past year.
Rachel has been to Haiti twice and has seen the abject poverty firsthand. "I don’t believe I can snap my fingers and change Haiti overnight," she said. "I know I have to work at it."One might call her approach mature for a 12-year-old. But Rachel isn't your typical pre-teen. She has already invested a fourth of her life to her cause."If everyone helped Haiti like Rachel, the country could stand on its own," said Mahfood. "In five years, Haiti would be a completely different country."So again, when you hear someone’s lament about the lazy no good for nothing youth nowadays in America, remember Rachel’s example and feel good about your self, because you’re one who knows the truth.
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks.... Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Crime. Could there be real answers?
For years, as I watch the news about all the crime happening across America, I as others wonder what’s going on. Crimes committed by people suffering from every kind of dysfunctionality imaginable. Everything from extreme poverty, through multiple mental illnesses humans are often prone to.
It’s always made me wonder several things. With all our supposedly learned professionals in the mental health, economic, educational and law enforcement fields, how come no one, including all those brainiacs, has ever been able to come up with real, workable answers?
Answers that would somehow alleviate or at least help all the hardships, suffering and craziness human’s heinous record of crimes against humanity have and continues to cause.
One of the thoughts I’ve come up with (Opps, here he goes again.) has to do with the whole idea of self worth. As I see it, right or wrong, we all seem to get most of our self worth through our jobs. Only a lucky few have jobs they love but at the least going to work each day provides us with several important factors, including a sense of belonging to something larger than our private worlds, hopefully a sense of accomplishing a task that needs doing and if we’re exceedingly fortunate, enough money to pay life’s oft times rip-off bills, which gives us self-reliance.
So there’s that “Self” thing again. Somehow gaining self-worth and self-reliance, could they quite possibly be the answer to all that ails most of us?
I’m sure since the cave man/women days, humans have always felt better about themselves when they had only themselves to rely on for their day-by-day needs and desires.
So I’ve often wondered if solving a great deal of humanities atrocities against each other is as simple as providing jobs. Not just make work but real jobs of worth. So instead of folks facing what they see as insurmountable, unsolvable and worthless lives, which quickly turns into self-loathing, hate and eventually violence, they would instead have purpose, comradely with others along with the capacity to feel real joy and happiness.
How would we provide jobs for our neediest population, especially in these “interesting times” we find ourselves in right now, you ask?
My thought is, if there were ever a time for the Government to step in to help, this would be it.
WHAT? You scream. More Government? Where do I think they could afford one more penny with all the waste?
OK, lets examine that. Lets start with just one thing we’ve been wasting money on forever. Lets first admit the truth that our entire legal system with its continually growing prison system is a complete failure.
Here are the all important questions folks. Has our legal system or has it not come anywhere close ever to solving crime? Other than for murders, rapist and child molesters, (which I think should be put out of our misery) does continually stacking humans like cordwood in our prisons ultimately make them better citizens or does it just continue their education into more and better crimes when they get out?
How about taking the millions upon millions it takes to incarcerate the very people we should be helping, to instead spend it on real re-education, mental health services, job training and job creation instead?
OK, that’s just one revenue source we could and should use, we’re pissing down the drain right now.
Now I’m sure the readers can think of a dozen other wasteful expenses we could revert to job creation, providing those all important self-worth and self-reliance’s but right now I’d love to introduce one persons unbelievably creative, brave and real step into doing just that.
Her name is Teresa Goines. Goines is no starry-eyed do-gooder. As a juvenile correction officer in Southern California, Goines heard the same story over and over.
"It was the revolving door of jail and prison, the hopelessness," she said. "They didn't expect to live past 18 and in some cases it was 13. They told me, 'We need jobs and some place that feels like family.' "So on the corner of Third Street and Palou in the the bay area of California, she started a Café/Restaurant called Old Skool Café. Old Skool Cafe is a faith-based violence prevention program, providing jobs and training to at-risk youth in the heart of San Francisco.
Their 1940's themed supper club confronts the epidemic of violence by providing at-risk and previously incarcerated youth with a variety of career opportunities that would normally not be afforded them.
Old Skool Cafe's vision is to enable at-risk youth to exit the vicious cycle of crime on the streets by giving them what they need most: meaningful and gainful employment. By hiring youth as paid apprentices, OSC has a proven track record of helping the young people direct their talents and energies into a legal, healthy, and productive path toward adulthood as contributing members of society.
She chose this exact location with a purpose. This neighborhood isn't just troubled. It's flat out dangerous.
"We had homicides on this corner in 2009, 2010, and a fatal stabbing a month ago," says Bayview Station Capt. Paul Chignell. "In the last 10 months we've had 17 firearm arrests on this corner. Things have improved, but there is still an unacceptable level of violence."
So obviously what's needed is a jazz/supper club. There's an offbeat logic to it. At a time when Third Street is transforming, Teresa Goines' idea of the Old Skool Café was grand.
Old Skool is an elegant jazz club with red leather booths and zoot-suited waiters. The kicker is the chefs, waiters and performers are all at-risk kids from the neighborhood.
"Having a felony actually qualifies them for me," Goines says.
True, except the restaurant has to work on its own. The potential is there. From a quick sample of the gumbo, to the award-winning shrimp and grits, to the killer desserts, the menu is a winner.
The entertainment will be a work in progress, but neighborhood advocates like James Moore of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center hopes the food, jazz and cool outfits will attract foodies and music aficionados from downtown.
"We want to make Third Street a destination," Moore said. "More businesses here with a commitment will help make Third safe and active."
Goines understands the neighborhood demographics. But she says this is a business, not a charity. Applicants are required to fill out a 16-page application and then make an appointment for an interview. The cafe got a $460,500 grant spread over three years from the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, and makes up the rest with community donors that include Lennar, which is redeveloping Hunters Point.
Other businesses have already committed to hiring Old Skool-trained youths, said Maria Su, director of the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families.
The hope is that by the time the grant expires in June 2013, the business will be self-sufficient.
Old Skool has a difficult path ahead, but who’s going to be the one who says it won't work. Their motto is: Come hungry, leave inspired.
Most who’ve came, did.
Now these kids and the whole neighborhood for that matter have a real chance of changing the direction of their paths from abject poverty, leading to crime, instead to lives of self-worth and self-reliance, all this because of one women’s vision of caring instead of the normal ways of incarceration and abuse at the incapable and failed hands of our judicial system.
So, there’s another fine example of many folks with incredible drive and determination in these new times. Creative intelligent people not only thinking outside the box but sledge hammering the walls completely down, putting new exciting potentials in the clear, clean light of day for all with open eyes to see.
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks.... Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
It’s always made me wonder several things. With all our supposedly learned professionals in the mental health, economic, educational and law enforcement fields, how come no one, including all those brainiacs, has ever been able to come up with real, workable answers?
Answers that would somehow alleviate or at least help all the hardships, suffering and craziness human’s heinous record of crimes against humanity have and continues to cause.
One of the thoughts I’ve come up with (Opps, here he goes again.) has to do with the whole idea of self worth. As I see it, right or wrong, we all seem to get most of our self worth through our jobs. Only a lucky few have jobs they love but at the least going to work each day provides us with several important factors, including a sense of belonging to something larger than our private worlds, hopefully a sense of accomplishing a task that needs doing and if we’re exceedingly fortunate, enough money to pay life’s oft times rip-off bills, which gives us self-reliance.
So there’s that “Self” thing again. Somehow gaining self-worth and self-reliance, could they quite possibly be the answer to all that ails most of us?
I’m sure since the cave man/women days, humans have always felt better about themselves when they had only themselves to rely on for their day-by-day needs and desires.
So I’ve often wondered if solving a great deal of humanities atrocities against each other is as simple as providing jobs. Not just make work but real jobs of worth. So instead of folks facing what they see as insurmountable, unsolvable and worthless lives, which quickly turns into self-loathing, hate and eventually violence, they would instead have purpose, comradely with others along with the capacity to feel real joy and happiness.
How would we provide jobs for our neediest population, especially in these “interesting times” we find ourselves in right now, you ask?
My thought is, if there were ever a time for the Government to step in to help, this would be it.
WHAT? You scream. More Government? Where do I think they could afford one more penny with all the waste?
OK, lets examine that. Lets start with just one thing we’ve been wasting money on forever. Lets first admit the truth that our entire legal system with its continually growing prison system is a complete failure.
Here are the all important questions folks. Has our legal system or has it not come anywhere close ever to solving crime? Other than for murders, rapist and child molesters, (which I think should be put out of our misery) does continually stacking humans like cordwood in our prisons ultimately make them better citizens or does it just continue their education into more and better crimes when they get out?
How about taking the millions upon millions it takes to incarcerate the very people we should be helping, to instead spend it on real re-education, mental health services, job training and job creation instead?
OK, that’s just one revenue source we could and should use, we’re pissing down the drain right now.
Now I’m sure the readers can think of a dozen other wasteful expenses we could revert to job creation, providing those all important self-worth and self-reliance’s but right now I’d love to introduce one persons unbelievably creative, brave and real step into doing just that.
Her name is Teresa Goines. Goines is no starry-eyed do-gooder. As a juvenile correction officer in Southern California, Goines heard the same story over and over.
"It was the revolving door of jail and prison, the hopelessness," she said. "They didn't expect to live past 18 and in some cases it was 13. They told me, 'We need jobs and some place that feels like family.' "So on the corner of Third Street and Palou in the the bay area of California, she started a Café/Restaurant called Old Skool Café. Old Skool Cafe is a faith-based violence prevention program, providing jobs and training to at-risk youth in the heart of San Francisco.
Their 1940's themed supper club confronts the epidemic of violence by providing at-risk and previously incarcerated youth with a variety of career opportunities that would normally not be afforded them.
Old Skool Cafe's vision is to enable at-risk youth to exit the vicious cycle of crime on the streets by giving them what they need most: meaningful and gainful employment. By hiring youth as paid apprentices, OSC has a proven track record of helping the young people direct their talents and energies into a legal, healthy, and productive path toward adulthood as contributing members of society.
She chose this exact location with a purpose. This neighborhood isn't just troubled. It's flat out dangerous.
"We had homicides on this corner in 2009, 2010, and a fatal stabbing a month ago," says Bayview Station Capt. Paul Chignell. "In the last 10 months we've had 17 firearm arrests on this corner. Things have improved, but there is still an unacceptable level of violence."
So obviously what's needed is a jazz/supper club. There's an offbeat logic to it. At a time when Third Street is transforming, Teresa Goines' idea of the Old Skool Café was grand.
Old Skool is an elegant jazz club with red leather booths and zoot-suited waiters. The kicker is the chefs, waiters and performers are all at-risk kids from the neighborhood.
"Having a felony actually qualifies them for me," Goines says.
True, except the restaurant has to work on its own. The potential is there. From a quick sample of the gumbo, to the award-winning shrimp and grits, to the killer desserts, the menu is a winner.
The entertainment will be a work in progress, but neighborhood advocates like James Moore of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center hopes the food, jazz and cool outfits will attract foodies and music aficionados from downtown.
"We want to make Third Street a destination," Moore said. "More businesses here with a commitment will help make Third safe and active."
Goines understands the neighborhood demographics. But she says this is a business, not a charity. Applicants are required to fill out a 16-page application and then make an appointment for an interview. The cafe got a $460,500 grant spread over three years from the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, and makes up the rest with community donors that include Lennar, which is redeveloping Hunters Point.
Other businesses have already committed to hiring Old Skool-trained youths, said Maria Su, director of the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families.
The hope is that by the time the grant expires in June 2013, the business will be self-sufficient.
Old Skool has a difficult path ahead, but who’s going to be the one who says it won't work. Their motto is: Come hungry, leave inspired.
Most who’ve came, did.
Now these kids and the whole neighborhood for that matter have a real chance of changing the direction of their paths from abject poverty, leading to crime, instead to lives of self-worth and self-reliance, all this because of one women’s vision of caring instead of the normal ways of incarceration and abuse at the incapable and failed hands of our judicial system.
So, there’s another fine example of many folks with incredible drive and determination in these new times. Creative intelligent people not only thinking outside the box but sledge hammering the walls completely down, putting new exciting potentials in the clear, clean light of day for all with open eyes to see.
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy. Thanks.... Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so..... COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Friday, April 13, 2012
Holistic Life Foundation
Another wonderful story of folks out there doing amazing things.
This is about a group of guys who returned to the neighborhood where they grew up and they're helping the kids who live there find peace of mind in a way you might not expect.
They were asked to coach peewee football, but Andy Gonzalez, along with brothers Ali and Atman Smith, had another idea...
Yoga, offering an extraordinary experience to Baltimore kids who know nothing about inner peace.
Nine years ago they formed the Holistic Life Foundation, a nonprofit offering free yoga classes. They got the kids that had all the behavioral issues, anger management issues, emotional issues. They started with 15 students. Now they've taught more than 1,000.
Away from the yoga mat, these men are tutors and mentors. They've even gotten kids who once destroyed property to help build this neighborhood park. There haven't been a lot of studies on how yoga affects kids, especially inner- city kids like these in Baltimore, but early findings show this kind of exercise is helping kids manage their stress.
Brothers Ali and Atman Smith met Andres Gonzalez at the University of Maryland College Park, spending a lot of time reading books on spirituality, philosophy, religions and other related topics. They all saw some things wrong with the world but it wasn’t until Andres asked. “So, what are we going to do about it?” that they all knew they had to do something.
What that something was, they had no idea. During this time they also began their journey on the path of yoga practice. As young children, Ali and Atman actually grew up with yoga in their home, with their father having them meditate every morning before school. You see, their parents were big hippies. They were also into yoga, vegetarianism, and all the stuff of their parent’s generation.
One summer afternoon, after graduation, the three were watching TV when they saw a commercial about a book telling how to get grant money to help you do almost any type of work. The commercial said something like: “Doing what you want to do in life is like being on vacation every single day!”
They knew they wanted to help people and the planet, and now had some ideas on funding.
At the end of that summer, they moved back into the house that Ali Atman grew up in and immediately noticed the sense of family that was present in the neighborhood when they grew up there was gone.
The Smith brothers remembered when they were living there as children, the neighborhood was like one big family with the older guys there serving as mentors and big brothers to all the younger kids. They say that as important factors in their growth and development. They knew then that they had to try and do something to help bring that feeling back to their neighborhood.
During this time, they began the planning and development for the formation of the non-profit organization. They also began to delve deeper into their practice and study of yoga. After months of hard work, on December 19th 2001, the Holistic Life Foundation was officially incorporated.
The services they now provide include:
Training:
Providing trainings for teachers, administrators, and youth workers. Trainings help participants incorporate yoga mindfulness, breathing, centering and related techniques into their work to improve the deliver of the services they provide.
Workshops:
The Foundation facilitates workshops in many formats, including one-time workshops and workshop series. Workshops include yoga, holistic health, Tai Chi, games, discussions, role-play, interactive activities, lectures as well as holistic solutions for all problems.
They also provide Mentoring, Environmental Advocacy programs, Stress reduction and mindfulness curriculums, Healthy Seniors Programs and much, much more.
So obviously, these two brothers and their friend found unbelievably creative ways to put their collage degrees to work for the benefit of humanity with funding readily available in the form of grants and donations, forming a non-profit organization, which allowed all deserving participants free admission.
All it took was their intelligence, drive, hard work, determination and hearts of gold.
Once again proving beyond a doubt there are people out in the world who do care. Not only care but also make things happen. Every day, every moment, these things are out there happening.
Isn’t it about time we demand our news media’s start focusing on these angels instead of just the negative? At the very least do their duty to show us the truth with balance instead of just one sided?
Want to learn more?
http://www.hlfinc.org/home.htm
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy.
Thanks....
Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so.....
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
This is about a group of guys who returned to the neighborhood where they grew up and they're helping the kids who live there find peace of mind in a way you might not expect.
They were asked to coach peewee football, but Andy Gonzalez, along with brothers Ali and Atman Smith, had another idea...
Yoga, offering an extraordinary experience to Baltimore kids who know nothing about inner peace.
Nine years ago they formed the Holistic Life Foundation, a nonprofit offering free yoga classes. They got the kids that had all the behavioral issues, anger management issues, emotional issues. They started with 15 students. Now they've taught more than 1,000.
Away from the yoga mat, these men are tutors and mentors. They've even gotten kids who once destroyed property to help build this neighborhood park. There haven't been a lot of studies on how yoga affects kids, especially inner- city kids like these in Baltimore, but early findings show this kind of exercise is helping kids manage their stress.
Brothers Ali and Atman Smith met Andres Gonzalez at the University of Maryland College Park, spending a lot of time reading books on spirituality, philosophy, religions and other related topics. They all saw some things wrong with the world but it wasn’t until Andres asked. “So, what are we going to do about it?” that they all knew they had to do something.
What that something was, they had no idea. During this time they also began their journey on the path of yoga practice. As young children, Ali and Atman actually grew up with yoga in their home, with their father having them meditate every morning before school. You see, their parents were big hippies. They were also into yoga, vegetarianism, and all the stuff of their parent’s generation.
One summer afternoon, after graduation, the three were watching TV when they saw a commercial about a book telling how to get grant money to help you do almost any type of work. The commercial said something like: “Doing what you want to do in life is like being on vacation every single day!”
They knew they wanted to help people and the planet, and now had some ideas on funding.
At the end of that summer, they moved back into the house that Ali Atman grew up in and immediately noticed the sense of family that was present in the neighborhood when they grew up there was gone.
The Smith brothers remembered when they were living there as children, the neighborhood was like one big family with the older guys there serving as mentors and big brothers to all the younger kids. They say that as important factors in their growth and development. They knew then that they had to try and do something to help bring that feeling back to their neighborhood.
During this time, they began the planning and development for the formation of the non-profit organization. They also began to delve deeper into their practice and study of yoga. After months of hard work, on December 19th 2001, the Holistic Life Foundation was officially incorporated.
The services they now provide include:
Training:
Providing trainings for teachers, administrators, and youth workers. Trainings help participants incorporate yoga mindfulness, breathing, centering and related techniques into their work to improve the deliver of the services they provide.
Workshops:
The Foundation facilitates workshops in many formats, including one-time workshops and workshop series. Workshops include yoga, holistic health, Tai Chi, games, discussions, role-play, interactive activities, lectures as well as holistic solutions for all problems.
They also provide Mentoring, Environmental Advocacy programs, Stress reduction and mindfulness curriculums, Healthy Seniors Programs and much, much more.
So obviously, these two brothers and their friend found unbelievably creative ways to put their collage degrees to work for the benefit of humanity with funding readily available in the form of grants and donations, forming a non-profit organization, which allowed all deserving participants free admission.
All it took was their intelligence, drive, hard work, determination and hearts of gold.
Once again proving beyond a doubt there are people out in the world who do care. Not only care but also make things happen. Every day, every moment, these things are out there happening.
Isn’t it about time we demand our news media’s start focusing on these angels instead of just the negative? At the very least do their duty to show us the truth with balance instead of just one sided?
Want to learn more?
http://www.hlfinc.org/home.htm
Again. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. Take the time and effort to read the directions below and add to the conversation for all to enjoy.
Thanks....
Now click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog and add your response or thoughts for others to see when they click on the "Comments" link (TRY IT RIGHT NOW!). It makes it far more interesting if we make it a conversation, instead of just my bullshit. Thank you to those who take the time and effort to do so.....
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
