2007-05-31

As our heat wave continued, after Morning Offering Jim departed for a long mowing day and I came upstairs to write the thumbnail sketches of our Board members which I had promised them all. With three new members, and the rest of the group always far-flung, it seems like a logical way to help the group function better. That took my morning work time and I enjoyed spending some time thinking about each one of our members. We are most fortunate to have such wonderful people on our Board. I sent the sketches to Gary and Mick for review, as I often make mistakes and would prefer to have someone in-house catch them rather than sharing them with the Board members.

Ian had written overnight to ask for a title for our spring Light/Lines, which was prepared in March but got derailed due to some computer glitch. It could have been on either end, as Trav1 was having its many glitches and Ian’s computer was choking on Vista at the same time. I made several suggestions for the title, so we will finally have that newsletter up. It is just about time to generate a new newsletter issue for summer!

Marlene K, a friend of Dana’s who had heard about the proposed commentary section for Dana Redfield’s Alphabet Mosaics book, wrote to vote against having the section in the book. She felt the book was a unit unto itself. Thinking about that, and relating to my own feelings about the project, I came up with a tentative solution: we will aim at printing a hard-copy edition of the book in its pure and undefiled state. On the e-book version of it, we will append all the commentary. That way, we can have our midrash and print it too. I shall see how that flies as I continue talking to her very loyal friends.

Jill sent an e-mail volunteering to write her commentary on Dana’s relationship with her, which apparently had been rich in phenomena, including shared UFO dreams. I encouraged her to do just that. She also noted that she had quite a collection, now, of Dana contacts, something I had not been able to get Dana to give me before she died. That is great news.

I caught up with Melissa T, who has had yet another stroke of bad luck – no job to be had where she is. So she is traveling northwest to live on a construction site where her friend, Grace, is building. She will help Grace finish the project. Melissa has a heart of gold. I assured her that she can come to live in Avalon’s utility shed, which has a nice sleeping loft and an indoor chemical toilet, if she needs to do that. She has certainly earned the right to do that. Melissa opened up Avalon before any other volunteers got there in 2003, scrubbing and cleaning in those primitive conditions, ridding the Sugar Shack of mice and a huge infestation of lady bugs and getting the place habitable.

Steve M wrote to say that he was sending us a Leonard Cohen album. He had read that I loved Cohen’s music, and indeed I do. His piano sound is so rich and full, and his lyrics so plangent, that I’ve always been a fan. I sent him a most grateful thank-you for the sweet thought. I also sent Steve my Chapter Four, now consisting only of the red-ray discussion, for his review. Steve has been extremely helpful at showing me how to trim the fat out of a sentence and make it easier to understand without losing the meaning.

I am not criticizing my usual writing style, which I like and which I use with relish. But for this 101 project, the language needs to be simple so that anyone, and I mean anyone with a seventh-grade reading level, can read it and understand it. This project is all about making the Confederation information more readily available. And my usual writing style is just too dense, playing with several thoughts at once, often, and using references from all over the place. The 101 project needs a very airy style, short sentences; short paragraphs and references only from current life and commonplace history such as sports and entertainment figures.

I finished the day by collecting a chicken recipe I think Jim and Gary will enjoy – simple to make but yummy.

I had been dogged by a sour tummy all day and was very glad to lay it all down and bathe with Mick, who was dusty from the work. I can see that the grass is struggling, as the bits of grass that were in the bath water after our ablutions were burnt. I did an imaginary rain dance in the blue-moon evening, hoping my prayers would ascend. We are in full draught.

Jim and I had a date after that, saluting the joy of life, then chatted and eventually napped until time for supper, which we shared with Gary. After our evening chapel time at the Gaia Meditation, Mick caught up his e-mail while I read. We ventured upstairs at bedtime for a kitty snuggle and lights out at 11 PM.