Thursday, November 14, 2024
This writing platform is behaving oddly again today. Experience has taught me that when WordPress isn’t stable, it will not likely save my drafts.
So, I will say “Good morning” and, for now, add ” Goodbye.” I’ll try to write again tomorrow morning.
Dear Friends: Have an enjoyable day of experiencing and learning. Diana
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
I am reading Bill Bryson’s The Body: A Guide for Occupants and Richard Dawkins’ The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie. These are making me very aware of being human at the genetic level.
Briefly defined, genes store and transmit information that guides an organism’s development and function. They don’t have brains or consciousness; however, they exhibit “intelligence” in how they respond to their environment and interact with each other. Genes can sense changes in their environment and adjust their activity accordingly to influence each other’s activity.
While absorbing genetic realities, I wish to comprehend the mechanisms that enable humans to self-perceive as individuals. I’m asking age-old questions about a “real reality” existing beyond whatever the genes sense, or in other words, is there “something real” outside ourselves?
It certainly seems that way and requires finding a beyond-the-gene-view.
A genetic perspective is limiting. It reduces our experience to biological mechanisms and doesn’t account for consciousness, emotions, or the subjective experience of being human. I wish to understand more about what creates the human realm of consciousness, awareness, and subjective experience.
The referenced books are easy reads and highly enjoyable. They are pushing questions about the existence of a reality beyond our physical perceptions. Ultimately, questioning “real reality” will prove to be deeply personal and philosophical, and there won’t be right or wrong answers.
I am an individual exploring. I might find myself forced to define my unique understanding of what constitutes “real reality.”
Dear Friends: I’ll keep reading and hopefully will gain more clarity. Diana
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Yesterday, this platform became unstable and destroyed a blog post I’d spent a long time writing. I was surprised, after not having been heartburned by WordPress in the last year. Around the time AI was erupting, WP’s often rocky platform seemed to stabilize.
To me, almost everything technological about the internet is mysterious. I can’t pinpoint why, when, or whatever regarding this writing platform’s behavior. I’m a simple user, and yesterday, I was angry to find my nearly-finished product disappearing–and was helpless. It was too late to recreate my blog.
Today, I’m a store opener in my part-time job and must soon leave for work. So, after explaining my absence yesterday, this is a quick hello today.
Dear Friends: Here in Central Oregon, this will be a lovely fall day. Diana
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Today, I’m scheduled to help open the store where I work part-time. This is an early-to-work day.
A couple of notes:
Our store has a new top manager, and she’ll be great from all appearances. Fortunately, through the time our store lacked a top manager, its supporting management team was terrific, more than pulling its weight and keeping the sales personnel onboard and involved.
Next week, I will begin transitioning from my assigned role in the Fine Jewelry Department. I will be busier during working hours than Jewelry provides. The upcoming change will have me again working in general sales, assigned to various departments, and interacting with a wider variety of shoppers.
I must start getting ready to leave home and open Fine Jewelry.
Dear Friends: Either side of each day challenges me during the holidays. Diana
Saturday, November 09, 2024
I have the closing shift today at my part-time job. I will feed my horses a final time this day in darkness. Nighttimes, I don’t feed them inside the barn, and I wear a headlamp while out among them. My horses are easy to get along with–infrequently spooky and running around; but dark-time feeding calls for cautious navigating among the large, hungry, and anticipating animals.
All that will become more so closer to Christmas, as the store will stay open until eleven in the evenings, and I’ll have to work on some late closing shifts. I’ll still be challenged to feed horses in darkness, but later, around midnight. And with my dogs barking.
I let my dogs be outside in their fenced area while I work with horses in darkness. I recognize routine barking, and if the barks become intense, I’m alerted of something non-routine. The barks often tell me a deer is crossing the property.
I dislike nighttime noises that might disturb my neighbors. However, my dogs help me feel safer.
I am starting to plan for transitioning to feeding my large animals on a schedule later, colder, and darker.
Dear Friends: Living on a property with large (and small) animals isn’t dull. Diana
Friday, November 08, 2024
My long-time friend Linda lives in California. Last night, she and I had a long conversation. We shared our emotions following the election and speculated about possible changes in the future, some of which would probably be unwelcome to many and others potentially beneficial to some.
I needn’t elaborate. We follow the news, are aware, have opinions. Essentially, the citizens have spoken again. Now, it’s appropriate for me to transition and be more accepting, as has happened often throughout my long history.
To that end, I am starting to read the recently published 
by Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, and science communicator. He’s one of the world’s great science writers and biologists.
Elaborating on Darwin’s findings, Dawkins explains the remarkable ways in which animals have overcome obstacles, adapted to their environments, and, again and again, through eons, developed remarkably similar ways of finding solutions to life’s problems.
He points to the untapped potential of DNA to transform and transcend our understanding of evolution. He hypothesizes that, in the future, a zoologist presented with a hitherto unknown animal who knows how to read its body and genes will be able to gather detailed descriptions of the world its ancestors inhabited.
I am attracted to the critical themes of overcoming obstacles, adapting, and finding solutions to life’s problems–coping measures for stressful times.
Dear Friends: I’ll keep you posted. Diana
Thursday, November 07, 2024
Like a gigantic portion of other Americans, I suffered from PTSD and depression yesterday morning. This election outcome makes me think that the world will become crueler.
Mother Nature helped me get back on my feet. In the early afternoon, the weather became warmish and invited being outside. I gathered my horses and dogs and took them to a horse trail. There, we moseyed among the fall colors.
A horse offers perfect therapy. While on horseback, I’m highly attentive to the animal, its attitude, and how it’s moving, as well as to trail conditions and my surroundings. I’m also attentive to my dogs, aware of their activities, all nearby, and looking well. Those attentions disallow the luxury of focusing on anything outside my immediate orbit.
By evening, my mood had improved; my routines felt more normal.
Today’s weather is predicted to be fair again, and I might ride again this afternoon.
Dear Friends: We must accept significant changes, one day at a time. Diana
Wednesday, November 06, 2024
America’s presidential election is decided. The weeks and months ahead will be instructive.
I am off my part-time job today and tomorrow, giving my brain time to refocus. I’ll hang out and enjoy being home.
This will be an opportunity to explore some waiting, interesting-looking books that have escaped my attention.
I’ll also play with the horses and dogs if these are pretty days.
Dear Friends: Hopefully ahead, “It’s [not] going to be a bumpy ride.” Diana
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
The American election process will end officially tonight, but that won’t include a final voting outcome unless there’s a clear front runner. That’s unlikely to happen according to months of data from trending maps. Anyway, soon we will turn our aching heads toward whatever confronts us and hopefully, self-adjust and carry on.
I am suffering massive election anxiety. In this election the stakes are very high for all individuals. Aside from the world’s conflicts that demand leadership, America itself is on the edge, about itself.
America’s population has become very mixed, and White Americans are losing their traditional domination; men are worried about how changing women’s roles are challenging the future of masculiniaty; women are demanding freedom, beyond the home, to make life choices, and to work, create, and produce.
We’ll learn what America’s voters want.
Dear Friends: Today, I’m due early at work, and now wishing everybody well. Diana
Monday, November 04, 2024
Like other Americans during this election cycle, I am learning there is a “political sociology.” In our affluent society, it is about the influences of education, gender, race, and citizenship status in predicting national voting trends and this election’s outcomes.
I’ve been fascinated by political sociology, which studies power dynamics, social movements, political institutions, and cultural values. It illuminates how contemporary society shapes an election cycle’s challenges and opportunities. Current social forces impacting our social lives are shaping our political outcomes.
We’re keenly aware of America’s political battling forces. Our current society has efforts to get out the votes targeting potential voters based on factors like education, gender, and ethnicity. This is a new swing that needs understanding.
Following this election cycle’s ups and downs makes us aware of how we have changed both as a nation and socially. We are learning how and why our political and economic institutions are changing and recognizing what makes our population so divided.
Dear Friends: Soon, this election will be over, and we will be wiser. Diana
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