Tai Chi, again

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This class is the biggest challenge I face these days. It’s right up there with learning how to swim when I was 47. Unfortunately this challenge has no easily discernible goal post, not like being able to swim a half mile or a mile. And the challenge isn’t because it is physically demanding; it’s not. The challenge comes in making all four of my appendages move in the proper direction at the same time. When both hands are doing the same thing, and the feet are still, there’s no problem. But my brain doesn’t want to deal with moving everything at once while playing follow the leader. I don’t think this is a function of old age. I was always a klutz and never had a strong determination to do any challenging motions. I did learn ballroom dancing, with some difficulty, when I was younger, but usually only your feet move. So I figure the Tai Chi is exercising both body and brain.

The class is diverse: a few youngsters, some people older than me. It’s interesting watching everyone do what they think they are supposed to be doing. Many people don’t quite make it, but have a characteristic stance that takes over, no matter what. I’m glad I can’t see myself.

Art fairs and animals

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Spent most of yesterday out of doors. It was a gorgeous day, only slightly warmer than I prefer. Went to two art fairs in the afternoon, on Ellsworth and on Walnut. They are close together so we walked to both. Pittsburgh014
This Pittsburgh monster was walking around the Ellsworth fair. I went up and told it I had seen it at Schenley Plaza when I went with Charna to the opening festivities. The woman with the "monster" said, Oh no, I only saw the costume. This was her gallery assistant. Things never change. When I was photographing for art galleries in Chicago I often marveled at the terrible jobs the assistants were willing to do, for next to no pay, I’m sure. After all, it’s a glamor job.

In the evening we went to the zoo. I marvel at the fantastic institutions here in Pittsburgh. The zoo ranks very high. Many of the animals are more active at dusk, and it was fun to see them. Pittsburgh016
The tiger was making some amazingly spooky noises. He’s recently become a father and probably wants to do it all over again. The evening ended all too soon, but as we were walking out, we came upon two very rare animals, griffins. Pittsburgh019
At one time there were eight of these around the zoo–bases holding up lamps.

Housekeeping

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I confess. I am a terrible housekeeper. Cleaning is my least favorite activity. But I decided I couldn’t let it go any longer so I skipped my morning visit to the health club and worked out by cleaning the house. Except for my workroom, where I can’t figure out how to begin, everything is gorgeous. Maybe over the weekend I’ll start on the workroom. I’ve had enough of this for one day.

It’s all erosion

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Having been a flatlander for most of my life, Chicago having only small man-made hills and overpasses, I am constantly amazed at the terrain here in Pittsburgh. I’ve been told that all of these hills, valleys, ravines, whatever you want to call them, were created by erosion. In other words, it all began with a high plateau and wind and water created the low points. I am particularly fascinated with the bridges and tunnels men have created to overcome the changes in terrain. One of my favorite structures is this stone arch double bridge. On the right is a railroad bridge; on  the left  is Lincoln Avenue, which passes under the railroad bridge. Just down the road is another spectacular bridge: Larimer Avenue. Both bridges cross a valley traversed by Washington Blvd. Neither street seems very heavily traveled today, but they are the only way to get across the valley for a distance of several miles. I finally drove over both bridges, but they are much more spectacular looking from below.

Health fears

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I am obviously not busy enough. I’ve been reading some trashy mysteries and watching too much television. The mysteries don’t bother me, and I’m getting bored with them. It’s the drug commercials on television that really frighten me. I think I could easily become a hypochondriac watching those things. I’m sure the drug companies benefit by, not only pushing their stuff for people that need it, but probably convincing healthy people they need this stuff. I’m not much prone to hypochondria, but they certainly keep me worrying.

WAR

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I have been largely preoccupied in the last three weeks with the war in Israel. I have many friends there and my heart goes out to them. One of the blogs I read, Octogenarian, has two excellent posts about the war. I urge you to read them. A comment on this post includes an article written in 1968. Sadly, it is still relevant today.

ISRAEL’S PECULIAR POSITION
By Eric Hoffer, May 26, 1968

(In
1968 the LA times ran this article, written by Eric Hoffer, a former
longshoreman and non-Jewish American social philosopher. Born in 1902,
Hoffer died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the
Presidential Medal of Freedom. Although written 38 years ago, the
following is as timely and applicable today as then )

The Jews
are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden
to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people
and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and
Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a
million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese –
and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel
the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that
Israel must take back every single Arab.

Arnold Toynbee calls
the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by
the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate
peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Other
nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be
defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would
have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to
save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including
our own, is worth the paper it is written on.

There is a cry of
outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two
Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no
one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break off
diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did
not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler
choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to
Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it
will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at
this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can
rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to
imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their
Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel
is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that
will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.

Dog Lovers

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This is a Darcy weekend. Robin and Steve, temporarily childless with Eli in Chile and Charna in camp, went biking in the Laurel Highlands. I won Darcy and brought her here, thinking it was easier to move her than to move me. She’s been here before so the apartment wasn’t strange to her. But my new neighbors have a dog. Darcy hates dogs. We haven’t introduced them but each time I take Darcy out for a walk she charges out the door barking and ready to kill. She makes a lot of noise for such a pretty little dog. This morning I apologized to my neighbors for all of the noise. They assured me it was OK. Being dog lovers, they did not mind. They also assured me I was not a dog lover. That’s certainly true. The big lesson I learned from Darcy is that I don’t want a dog. I enjoy walking Darcy when there are no other dogs around. She’s a great explorer. Last night we found these amazing mushrooms.Mushrooms
They looked like plastic from a distance. It looks like something took a bite out of one of them.

Structuring my life

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I felt like I’ve been coasting for the last couple of months. Even though I’ve been traveling a lot, I haven’t really been able to focus on anything. I decided that things have to change. I have resolved to go to the health club every week day this month. I went yesterday and had a good workout; today I went to the Tai Chi class. I also went to the farmer’s market yesterday and got some beautiful tomatoes, peaches, Kirby pickles, which I prefer to cucumbers and a green pepper. Today I went to the grocery and got some more stuff to make gazpacho. I could have gotten most of this at the farmer’s market, but the sun was so hot I couldn’t wait to get back to the car (ac). This is the first time I’ve done anything even remotely resembling cooking in this kitchen. Most of the time if I can’t microwave it, I don’t eat it. This fit of cooking (?) was brought on because I have resolved to eat more fruit and vegetables and less junk. I’m also hoping to do something creative every day, but I’m not doing as well with that.

Play by the rules

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I was brought up to always follow the rules. First there was the ten commandments, then the golden rule, then Sadie Kalmon’s rules for living through grammer school, and on and on. Maybe when I get to be eighty I will learn what the kids know now: following some of these rules is just idiocy.

Back in May I found out there would be a Chihuly exhibit at the Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Anticipating huge crowds I went to the website to see what kind of hoops I would have to jump through. I became a member of the garden, I went to Ticketmaster, which I hate, and got tickets for my June 28 visit, and with the usual Ticketmaster practice of giving the worst seats, parking spaces, etc., to the earliest purchasers, got parking at Lehman College. They also gave us bad directions for getting to Lehman College. The parking lot was empty and we were the only people on the shuttle bus. We got to the garden and it was also empty. If we hadn’t bothered following the rules, we would have been able to park at the door and get tickets without paying the Ticketmaster services fees. They even charge for letting you print out the tickets on your own printer. We did enjoy the show, particularly since it was empty.

Again following the rules, we bought tickets for the July 27 evening showing and paid a $20 valet parking fee. THIS IS THE OUTRAGE! For that $20 we waited one hour and 45 minutes to get our car. We walked out early in hopes of avoiding the crush, and we were amongst the last people to get their cars. We were told they had twice as many people as they expected, meaning that at least half of those people did not follow the rules and buy parking in advance, and the garden didn’t follow the rules and turn them away.

Designer wannabe

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Hannah wants to be a dress designer. She is at work here, last winter, on her very patient mother.Hannah7
I thought it would be fun for her to go the the museum at FIT. She and that patient mother came into the city on Wednesday and the three of us went to see the show. We did a little shopping in the art supply store at FIT, had lunch and then went back uptown to the Museum of the City of New York, where we paid particular attention to the doll house. Hannah said she liked everything we did, but the subway was the best.Hannah