I just finished breathing.
Not permanently, of course.
I refer to my “magic fitness/mental health exercise.”
It’s called meditative breathing. And it’s popularity is growing, according to latest press reports.
This basically involves taking time out to think about and focus on your breath. Its harder than it sounds, but the results are totally awesome. Read the rest of this entry »
Think the human process of growing old can be a pain in the posterior?
Consider what the fierce-looking eagle, ruler of its skies, must go through to survive to maturity.
The powerful bird of prey and symbol of strength can live up to 70 years. But to reach full maturity, the eagle must make tough decisions. Read the rest of this entry »
Baby gorilla, Alvila, San Diego Zoo - published in My Seven Years in Captivity
A peaceful afternoon African game drive was shattered by a rhino whirling to lumber toward our Land Rover!
Seeing an angry rhino thundering your way, with seemingly increasing momentum, ranks right up there as one of the perspiration-producing moments in my years with the San Diego Zoo.
I admit, I may have been damp in more places than one.
We had riled a mother black rhino (calf trotting along beside her) who thought our photo safari had come a bit too close. But instead of just a warning with a short charge before veering off, she seemed bent on ramming us with that ominous-looking horn. Read the rest of this entry »
I just returned from air travel after a week wandering around amazing Yellowstone National Park. During the usual three-hour flight delay in Salt Lake City my wife and I waited on a hard bench in Terminal 402Z with other dozing citizens.
I stayed alert. None of that giving in to the usual “flight fatigue” for me. I think it was the good night’s sleep in the mountains, the high-energy breakfast, and the way my wife jabbed what I believe was a hat pin into my buttocks every ten minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re back, broke, but content.
It was a memorable seven days in Jackson Hole, Wyo. and Yellowstone National Park.
Halfway through, I thought we’d slipped back in time. Not just because the famous park’s pace and landscape has a calming, almost hypnotic effect, changing your perceptions.
My wife, Lovae and I were momentarily stunned upon arriving mid-week at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. No elevator. No phone. (And almost no cell phone reception!) No closets. No TV. No radio.
Jeez, can we survive three nights? we asked. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most profound and simplistic characterizations of human personalities came from a lovely, vivacious woman I knew many years ago. Her name was Rita Holt, wife of a tattooed ex-mariner and fellow editor at the Army Times Publishing Co. in Washington, D.C.
It seems she once spent six months in a tuberculosis (TB) sanitarium (the prescribed treatment in those days). During a social gathering of journalists, she told us how tedious life was there for patients.
“My roommate and I grew real bored after the first few months,” Rita said. “We finally hit upon a plan to categorize all the people with whom we came into contact over the next few months. That included doctors, nurses, orderlies, janitors, visitors and other patients.”
“And what did you come up with?” I asked out of burning curiosity, having once spent long, boring weeks in a hospital ward myself.
Mrs. Holt said that she and her roommate eventually came to the conclusion that all of mankind fit into one of three general categories:
“Absolutely everyone,” she told us with a sweep of her arm, “was either:
1. A dull nut;
2. An interesting nut; or
3 A dangerous nut.
We all tried for a few minutes to challenge that, or improve on it, but couldn’t.
I have since used that as a personal gauge for everyone I ever met, before or after. But it seems to be unfailingly true. Everyone is some kind of “nut.”
The only improvement, as far as I can determine, might be to use the word “semi-” in front of the adjective in some cases (as in “semi-dangerous”).
Can you improve on it?
In honor of her cooking my eggs and washing my socks for sixty years, I took my bride on a cruise last January to Mexican ports.
A highlight occurred when the m.c. for the ship’s daily stage entertainment cited half-a-dozen of the stupidest questions passengers had asked while at sea: Read the rest of this entry »
While recently reporting on a national kids’ spelling bee, our local fish-wrapper took the opportunity to knock the spelling abilities of today’s adults.
The item cited startling results of a survey conducted by a company whose software edits computer writing. The conclusion drawn: the average adult has a tough time when it comes to spelling ordinary words like “calendar” and “referring.”
Incredibly, of the 2500 folks surveyed, over 40 percent couldn’t pick out from three choices, the right spelling of “questionnaire.” Read the rest of this entry »
Seaton - blog article
SHARING AN INTIMACY WITH ‘THE SARONG GIRL’
On a broiling afternoon in 1985, I walked arm-in arm with former movie star Dorothy Lamour on the grounds of a new “water park” being readied adjacent to the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.
“I must confess,” I remember saying to her as we strolled past fascinating water falls, pools and rides undergoing final testing, “I was in love with you for many years.” Read the rest of this entry »