Friday Peace Vigil, Casa Grande, AZ, and surrounding area, January 31, 2014:

PEACE VIGIL
CASA GRANDE, AZ
Friday, January 31, 2014
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
W. Florence Blvd.. & N. Cameron St.

Peace Vigils are held every Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Casa Grande from mid-December to mid-April. Come and stand for Peace! Bring a sign or a sign can be provided - and bring another peace activist. The more the merrier! Call Debbie Jordan (520-494-0437) or Tony Fasline (520-426-0070) for details.

　


THIS WEEK:

I may be growing older, but I promise I’ll never grow up!

Yup. It’s that time again. Time for me and the Chinese to turn to a new calendar. And just like the Asians who count years in series of twelve, I’m about to face an entire new decade. Ouch!

But life goes on and it beats the alternative. And the truth is, I’d much rather know what I know now than what I did when I was young and foolish. Now I’m just old and foolish!

Okay, I promise I’m done with all the cliches. My other news this week is that I have finished crocheting my next cap, this one for a special type of cancer patient. I still have to block it so we can get photos. But since I’ve already started another, I’ll wait to finish that one too and block them both at the same time. I promise to post at least one picture here next week. Stay tuned.

As always, I invite everyone to join me in a vow to use our blessings, skills, and talents to build a society without poverty or war in which everyone is able to enjoy at least the basic benefits of prosperity and peace.

Meanwhile, send out your positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers for all the suffering souls all around the world!

The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Pain-free handwriting

Okay, here’s a brain teaser for you: What do I have in common with Jon Talton and Sydney Biddle Barrows?


I can assure you, the answer has nothing to do with Ms. Barrows’ former career as the Mayflower Madam, but don’t worry if you still don’t have a clue. It’s such an obscure fact that few people on the planet know the answer, and one of them’s on the list.

While watching a documentary on Barrows’ life, I noticed that she held her pen between her index and middle fingers when she autographed copies of her best selling books for a group of fans. And when he signed a copy of his first David Mapstone mystery, Concrete Desert, for me, I informed Jon Talton, former business and editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic, that I share that rare habit with him.

What’s so special about the way the three of us handle our writing instruments? Since we don’t grip pens between thumb and index finger, we risk only a minimal possibility of developing writer’s cramp from signing too many autographs--and doing any other handwriting too.

So, if holding a pen correctly is the secret of preventing, or at least minimizing, writer’s cramp, no matter how much a person writes by hand, why doesn’t everyone write that way? For the same reason that people continue to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome when they use the QWERTY keyboard, even though they could speed up their typing and minimize most pain in their hands, wrists, arms, necks and backs. Most schools teach students to write and type using the old-fashioned--and more painful--methods, so most people don’t even know there are better ways to perform both of those tasks.

To be fair, there has been a growing awareness of the more efficient, pain-free methods lately, since a measure of media attention has been focused on them in recent years. Trouble is, the incorrect methods are so ingrained that few people are willing to change these habits on their own. It requires either a change of attitude, which is how I made the transition with both techniques in the late 1980s, or an organized program to retrain those people who want to continue being productive without so much of their old pain.

For me, that pain was the tipping point. By 1989, I was close to giving up writing altogether, both by hand and on the computer, because the pain I’d experienced since my teen years was finally getting to be too overwhelming. But as often happens in my life, help came just at the right time. Around the same time that I met a woman who used a Dvorak keyboard and inspired me to buy one myself, I discovered an article in the paper that demonstrated the proper way to hold a writing instrument.

Retraining myself did take a certain change of mind-set. I detailed the process of relearning how to type in the article posted here on January 27, 2014, "The Dvorak keyboard: Keys to the Computer Age," in which I explain why I might have learned the keyboard in a few days, but I didn’t have the luxury of a real Dvorak on hand for my early practice sessions. I can now call myself a genuine typing whiz, since I can type anything faster than most people, with no pain at all.

On the other hand, the biggest obstacle to retraining myself in the proper handwriting method was reminding myself to hold the pen between the correct fingers. For several weeks, whenever I picked up a pen, I had to consciously tell myself to grip it between the two fingers, and make that little thumb behave itself! Too often, it wanted to push itself into the other digits’ business.

The point is to relax my hand as much as possible and just let the thumb gently stabilize the mechanism from the side. Truth is, after nearly 25 years of handwriting the right way, that thumb has tried to intrude at times, especially when I’m concentrating hard on some writing task, but at least I no longer have to think about placing the pen or pencil between the correct digits when I start to write.

If you’d like to know more about either method of turning out words without pain, you can find more information on the internet. One caveat: You might have to wade through a lot of clutter in your search for the answers. Many of the Dvorak sites contain advertising and links that send you far afield of your original goal, so keep that in mind when you research the subject online. As for information on holding your pen correctly, I’ve found a few sites that discuss the technique as an alternative method for people who want to ease their hand pain or improve their handwriting.

It occurs to me that if the more popular method causes that pain in the first place and doesn’t support better handwriting, why does anyone bother with it in the first place? Ah, well. Just one of those mysteries of the universe! Anyway, to view a photo that shows how to hold the pen between your index and middle fingers, you can go to: http://paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html.


　
Finally, in my search for helpful sites, I found many products for people with arthritis that perpetuate the inferior method of holding the writing instrument between the thumb and index finger. On the other hand, the Ring Pen has the happy result of forcing the user to place the barrel of the pen between the two correct fingers. You’ll find information and an action photo of this product in use at: http://www.ringpen.com/ABCD/.


Since we’ve both been newspaper columnists, other traits I share with Jon Talton are more obvious, but few people know that I also have more in common with the Mayflower Madam than our shared handwriting technique. As a lifelong night person, I published NIGHT OWL’S NEWSLETTER from 1989 to 1994, which got me, among other things, a paragraph in GLAMOUR MAGAZINE and five minutes on "Good Morning America" (so I have another 10 minutes of fame left on my dance card).

That claim as an official "lady of the night" gives me something in common with New York’s most notorious "lady of the evening." (Technically inaccurate, I know, since Ms. Barrows was the boss and not a hired hand.) Thus, while she was wrangling hookers in the Big Apple, I was serving owls across the country as the self-appointed Chief Executive Owl.

　

　
The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

The Dvorak Keyboard: Keys to the Computer Age

Three weeks ago, in my article entitled "Caps for cancer patients: Making 2014 Resolutions," I promised to reprint my old newspaper columns explaining why I can type and write without pain, in spite of having arthritis since I was young. It’s long past time that I fulfill that promise, so here is my article on the Dvorak keyboard. And I also promise that within the next two days, I’ll post my article about writing with a pen or pencil without writer’s cramp.
　

Imagine you've just traded in your old clunker on a brand new rocket-powered racing car. This isn't some old crate to haul you down the highway. This baby will zip you into the stratosphere. It is fast! Like, wow!!!

Isn't that what computers are supposed to do to our lives? Take us places we've barely dreamed of going? And at the speed of light? Computers take us onto the internet, which is akin to opening a door and stepping out into the universe. We also use these newfangled machines to plan the family budget and do our taxes, not to mention good old-fashioned word processing--a task once called "typing."

So you've replaced your old Smith Corona, or maybe the hammer-and-chisel you got for graduation--how many years ago was that? Of course, this new contraption's more complicated than what you're used to. Instead of rolling paper into the typewriter, words and numbers appear on a "monitor" before you print out a "hard copy" of your "data." Still, one part of the system looks pretty much like it used to in the "good old days" of typewriting.

The keyboard may no longer be part of a big box-like contraption, unless you're working on a laptop. Of course, you can do as I do and plug in a peripheral for real ‘lap’ top input. And you have to admit the detached system gives you more freedom than that old typewriter did. At least all the keys are where they used to be. And therein lies the problem.

To illustrate, let's get back to that wonderful racer in your traveling dream. When you unpack that streamlined baby, you discover the wheels are missing. To make it go anywhere, you have to use the same mode of transport your great-great-etc.-grandpa used to tool around in 125 years ago. That race-car salesman promised you'd be zooming through your universe at light speed, but the only way you can make this crate go is by loading it onto a horse and buggy and hauling it around in that old-fashioned rig. And, boy, does riding in it make your bones ache!

The same principle applies to space-age computers, if you use the same key arrangement that has been the standard for 125 years. Commonly called "qwerty," after the first six alphabetic keys on the upper left-hand corner, as the story goes, the key arrangement was designed as the most inefficient arrangement for English-language use--to slow down typists so they wouldn't jam keys on the earliest typewriters! Another reason was to split common two-letter combinations to prevent jamming as well.

As the machine's internal design improved and jammed keys became less of a problem, scattered attempts were made to improve the key arrangement, but tradition in both workplace and typing class perpetuated the inefficient design nearly a century past its useful life span. Only one streamlined layout made any headway, the American Simplified Keyboard (ASK) designed by Dr. August Dvorak and William Dealey during the 1920s and '30s. But even though the Dvorak design ran circles around qwerty in one study after another, tradition still reigns supreme.

As an example of this bias, my most recent copies of the Guinness Book of World Records, from the late '90s, didn't bestow the speed-typing record upon Barbara Blackburn, who could type rings around all comers, because she used--you guessed it!--the Dvorak keyboard. Instead, she was relegated to mere "footnote" status in that usually venerable publication.

Still, a growing "underground" of us are fed up, not only with our fingers not being able to keep up with our brains, but with the pain caused by a machine designed years before anyone ever heard of "ergonomics." In the Winter 1997 issue of "Striking Home," official publication of Dvorak International, I explained why I use Dvorak. I called the following piece, "Forget Speed--Think Pain":

The Dvorak keyboard helps me type faster,
with fewer errors, and, best of all,
no pain from either arthritis or CTS! (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard)

I had carpal tunnel syndrome before CTS was cool. By 1970 I'd figured out that wrapping my wrist with an ace bandage eased the agonizing pain shooting through my hands, wrists and arms from my work on a qwerty keyboard. Earlier, in 1966 at the tender age of 22, I was told by a co-worker that my often swollen knuckles foreshadowed painful arthritis that would probably cut short my career as a lightning-fast, super-accurate keypunch operator.


I finally had to quit full-time work in 1974 when pain, along with overwhelming exhaustion, overtook my entire body as a result of lupus, an arthritis-like disease. But pain in my hands didn't stop me from writing almost daily on my typewriter, then a home computer beginning in 1983. Still, by the late '80s I wondered how long I could continue to pursue an activity that worsened the agony in my hands and arms--even my back--with each keystroke.

I'd heard of Dvorak earlier, but not until 1989 did I meet someone who actually used the American Simplified Keyboard. With her guidance and a little persistence, I was able to locate a distributor of Dvorak keyboards and begin typing completely without pain. It was truly a miracle!

To those Doubting Thomases who say the change might only have been a fluke--after all, symptoms of lupus can appear and disappear, sometimes without explanation--a subsequent qwerty experience clinches it for me:

In 1994 my old 286 went belly-up and I had to wait a couple of weeks for the delivery of a Dvorak keyboard wired for my new AT. Meanwhile, just to keep my hand in, I slowly (for me) pecked out thoughts on my old convertible qwerty. At the end of that time, in spite of my restraint, my right arm was sprained clear up past my elbow from stretching finger and hand muscles that were not designed to move that way.

While everyone is trying to sell Dvorak on speed, which doesn't interest most people who are paid by the hour, Dvorak users should be pushing the pain-free factor. CTS is epidemic among people forced to spread their poor fingers agonizingly across a qwerty torture rack. If they only knew how good it feels to move the fingers in a completely natural rhythm over a much smaller area, they would leap at the chance to switch to Dvorak.

Then there's that last little objection: I'm too old (or just don't want to bother) to learn a new keyboard. Those mules can take one more page from my life:

I received the Dvorak instruction book three weeks before my first Dvorak keyboard arrived in 1989. Naturally, I was anxious to check out the program to make sure I'd really like the new system. For a few minutes each day I tapped out ASK strokes on my qwerty while ignoring the gobbledygook flashing on my computer screen. I also kept the book in the bathroom, the best venue for mental drill known to humans. During that time I had no confusion when I switched back to qwerty for my regular work. Then when my Dvorak arrived, I fell into the new key pattern with almost complete ease. Even better, I'm nearly 50% faster than I was with qwerty and make fewer mistakes than ever.

After a day or two on Dvorak, touch typists already proficient with qwerty usually wonder how in the world they survived that old horse-and-buggy keyboard. And with the training programs now available, new typists who bypass qwerty altogether can become extremely proficient on Dvorak in a few days, rather than the weeks or months needed with the old system.

So, forget speed and accuracy. If your qwerty is a big pain in the you-know-what, just take one Dvorak--and don't call me in the morning.

Back to the present: Several years ago, I used the web page www.typingtest.com, and without even breaking a sweat, I easily cruised well above 80 wpm with 100% accuracy. If I'd ignore those typos, I'd have gone even faster, but I'm a nut for doing things right the first time.

The internet makes it easier than ever to switch to Dvorak. In Windows, it’s found in your Control Panel under Language, International. And if you need more help, any good search engine can lead you to numerous resources which not only explain the benefits of using the more scientific keyboard design but will help you accomplish the switch for no charge at all.

So if you’ve been much too patient with pain in your paws from pecking on your old QWERTY, you have no more excuse to try Dvorak. If you’re smart enough to try it, then I wish you much faster and definitely pain-free typing on your new space-age racing computer system!

　

　
The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Friday Peace Vigil, Casa Grande, AZ, and surrounding area, January 24, 2014:

PEACE VIGIL
CASA GRANDE, AZ
Friday, January 24, 2014
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
W. Florence Blvd.. & N. Olive Ave.

Peace Vigils are held every Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Casa Grande from mid-December to mid-April. Come and stand for Peace! Bring a sign or a sign can be provided - and bring another peace activist. The more the merrier! Call Debbie Jordan (520-494-0437) or Tony Fasline (520-426-0070) for details.

　


THIS WEEK:

As I promised last week, here’s a picture of the second cap I made in my quest to complete at least 12 Caps for Cancer Patients in 2014:

　

The next one will be special, made for some people whose cause I wholeheartedly support. I hope to post a picture of the first cap in that series in a week or two. I’ll start it later today.

Meanwhile, I have done a bit of writing and several administrative tasks this week. I’m happy I can manage these useful tasks during the colder months of the year, a goal that’s getting harder for me to reach every year because of lifelong progressive chronic medical conditions.

I do this by concentrating on my ‘abilities’ rather than my ‘disabilities.’ That’s what we should all be encouraged to do, even those people we in the disability community refer to as ‘temporarily able-bodied’ (TABs for short).

And to all those people who don’t like that because they selfishly demand things from me that I’m no longer able to manage: You know what you can do about it. (I hope it’s not too painful!)

As always, I invite everyone to join me in a vow to use our blessings, skills, and talents to build a society without poverty or war in which everyone is able to enjoy at least the basic benefits of prosperity and peace.

Meanwhile, send out your positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers for all the suffering souls all around the world!

　
The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Becoming more Blessed

Several years ago, I was invited to write an article for the HelpingHelp Innovation for Nonprofits blog. I chose to discuss the negative connections between poverty and charity, one of the many issues that inspired the essays collected in my book, The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace.


Conservatives are trying harder than ever before to eliminate government programs that help poor people. They claim it would be more acceptable if those services were managed by charities. That’s the reason I must explain one more time why both government and charities must take more effective approaches to the problem of poverty in our society. Here, then, is my article which was originally posted on March 17, 2010:


BECOMING MORE BLESSED

Most people know the quote from the Bible. It would be a "red letter" statement attributed to Jesus, except it’s in the book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 35: " . . . remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." (KJV)

You could say there’s an entire industry built around the concept of people being "more blessed." It’s called "charity," which is a synonym for "love." That’s good, of course, but what about the recipients? Are those who receive less "blessed" than those who give to others?

In a perfect world, people who receive would be able to return the favor, if not directly to those who give to them, at least to someone else in turn. Thus, society would be in balance. But that’s not how things are in the real world.

In fact, society almost guarantees an entire class of people are doomed to be among the less blessed. Billions of people spend their lives wanting for the basic goods and services we "blessed" people take for granted: nourishing food, clean water, safe and sheltering homes, and much more.

Does it have to be like that? Can something be done about it? If so, what?

Consider what happens in the event of an extraordinary catastrophe, such as a hurricane or an earthquake. The authorities declare an emergency, and public and private organizations are mobilized. This process allows millions of people to pitch in and help victims of the disaster.

In such cases, there are givers and receivers. But the situation, though dire, is usually temporary. The goal is to bring life back to normal for the receivers, so they can once again become givers in their turn. That’s how the social balance is maintained.

But what of the ultimate emergency: poverty? To those in the lowest economic strata, life is an eternal emergency. They are in constant need of help, not merely to make it through a day or a defined period of time, but for their entire lives. They are chronic receivers, the incurably less blessed.

My essays in The World I Imagine

detail a comprehensive plan for

ending poverty and war by

building a society in which

everyone enjoys some measure

of prosperity and peace.

Fortunately, many organizations help the more blessed give to those in need. They provide food, medical services, water, shelter--the basics. But as much as they help people survive, such bequests rarely offer long-term improvement for the people they help. Poverty is a virtual inferno that destroys everything in its path. For all their good intentions, these givers are like firefighters trying to stop a massive wildfire with small buckets of water.

The solution to this endless catastrophe must be to build a system that is, if not fireproof, at least fire-resistant. In the face of poverty, we must become proactive instead of merely reactive. There is an old saying: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." This is wise counsel.

But what if we sit with the man at the riverbank until he is adept at snagging the biggest fish, then declare him ready, stand up, take back our fishing poles, tackle, bait, all the tools he needs to catch more fish to feed his family and more--and carry these tools away with us? What good does that new education do for the man and his family then?

Education is only the first step. After that, people need jobs and tools so they can perform honest labor and earn enough to purchase the basic goods and services. Then they will be able to enjoy a dignified existence.
Charitable organizations work best when they offer this kind of parity between giving and receiving. Besides providing the basic goods and services, they can teach and provide recipients with the means to work and earn money. One of the best organizations of this kind is Heifer International.


Instead of simply feeding hungry people, the charity provides an animal, usually a cow or a goat, to a family that will breed it and return several animals as repayment for the loan. Then those animals are given to other families, and the blessings are spread far and wide. In the end, recipients end up with small herds that not only feed their own families but help bring prosperity to their villages.

Microloans are another tool that help poor people, especially women, raise themselves, their families, and their villages out of poverty. With a small amount of money, they learn to build successful businesses while they repay the loans at a small rate of interest.

Givers to these types of charities are helping to raise the status of the less blessed so that poor people can eventually become givers themselves. This is the best kind of giving. This is truly the way for each of us to become more blessed.

　
The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Friday Peace Vigil, Casa Grande, AZ, and surrounding area, January 17, 2014:

PEACE VIGIL
CASA GRANDE, AZ
Friday, January 17, 2014
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
W. Florence Blvd.. & N. Pinal Ave.

Peace Vigils are held every Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Casa Grande from mid-December to mid-April. Come and stand for Peace! Bring a sign or a sign can be provided - and bring another peace activist. The more the merrier! Call Debbie Jordan (520-494-0437) or Tony Fasline (520-426-0070) for details.

　


THIS WEEK:

How are all you folks doing with your New Year’s Resolutions so far? I’m delighted to say I’m continuing to make progress on my vow to make at least 12 Caps for Cancer Patients in 2014. As promised, here is the first, a pink knit hurricane hat:

　

　

Today I’m just a few rows away from finishing a crocheted number for the second cap of my 2014 series. I might even have a picture of that ready to share when I post this announcement next week. I plan to spend more time on my writing this week as well. A little here, a little there, and 2014 can turn out to be a better year than 2013 was. Positive thoughts all round!

As always, I invite everyone to join me in a vow to use our blessings, skills, and talents to build a society without poverty or war in which everyone is able to enjoy at least the basic benefits of prosperity and peace.

Meanwhile, send out your positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers for all the suffering souls all around the world!

　

The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Friday Peace Vigil, Casa Grande, AZ, and surrounding area, January 10, 2014:

PEACE VIGIL
CASA GRANDE, AZ
Friday, January 10, 2014
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
W. McCartney Blvd.. & N. Pinal Ave.

Peace Vigils are held every Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Casa Grande from mid-December to mid-April. Come and stand for Peace! Bring a sign or a sign can be provided - and bring another peace activist. The more the merrier! Call Debbie Jordan (520-494-0437) or Tony Fasline (520-426-0070) for details.

　


THIS WEEK:

So, did you survive Blue Monday? Never heard of Blue Monday? Well, it’s already passed for this year, so if you’re doing okay now, you can thank your lucky stars.

Blue Monday is a term coined nearly a decade ago to explain why the first Monday of the new year is probably the worst day of the year. There’s the letdown after holiday highs, recently acquired debt, resolutions you’ve probably already started to break, and the worst weather of the year. On top of all that, it’s a Monday. If you survived that day, which was January 6 this year, you probably have nowhere to go but up.

For me, the only downer is the weather. We avoid the rest by treating spiritual occasions as just that, spending December as we do the rest of the year, doing work we hope will inspire others. Then I use January on finances, tidying up 2013 records and making plans for 2014.

I’m also proud to report that last night I completed the first of the twelve caps for cancer patients I plan to make in 2014. Next week I’ll post a picture of that new one. Meanwhile, the picture below shows a pink turban I crocheted last year for someone with cancer.



As always, I invite everyone to join me in a vow to use our blessings, skills, and talents to build a society without poverty or war in which everyone is able to enjoy at least the basic benefits of prosperity and peace.

Meanwhile, send out your positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers for all the suffering souls all around the world!

　

The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Caps for cancer patients: Making 2014 Resolutions

Yes, it’s that time again. Time to make New Year’s Resolutions for 2014. What can I can do in this new year that I didn’t do in 2013? Or maybe I started a project last year and an extra push will get me over the finish line. Then there are habits I started in 2013 that I’ll stick with from now on.

Who knows, 2014 could be even better than 2013 was. There’s always room for improvement, right?

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Consider the potential resolutions most people consider:

Quit smoking? Did that in 1969. Haven’t been tempted in decades. Check.

Give up drinking? Haven’t had a sip of alcohol since the ‘80s. Anyway, I like being able to keep a clear head. Check.

Lose weight? Each time I stop eating another food I’ve become allergic to, I drop a few more pounds. If I lose any more, I’ll just fade away. Check and Double Check.

LET’S GET POSITIVE
 
But those are the ‘Thou shalt nots.’ They’re the ones everybody thinks about but seldom actually do--or don’t do.

What about the ‘Thou shalts’? Better to make this a positive experience and really improve my life. How about:

Organize my office? I’ve been working on that miracle since early 2013. Continue with same in 2014. Check.

Finish writing my latest novel? That’s the one I’ve written parts of off and on since I-can’t-even-remember-when. I did get much more serious about it in 2013 but kept getting distracted. Still, it’s beginning to take shape, and now it’s easier to jump back into any time I can. Keep up the good work, girl. Check.

AND MY NEW FAVORITE PROMISE
 
Use my needlework skills to help people in need?

Now here’s the positive resolution I really enjoy keeping.

Eons ago, when I was much, much younger, I’d knit and crochet sweaters, shawls, gloves, and more. I still have several beautiful sweaters I wore when we lived in colder climes, but they’re impractical in southern Arizona, so they’re safely stored away in our cedar chest. I’ll donate them one day, but I still like to admire all that beautiful handiwork. Later, okay?

 

 

Crocheting a cap in a single

color gives me a chance to

experiment with new stitches

 

In the 1980s, I got serious about writing. But with arthritis in my hands, it was hard to do both typing and needlework, which included needlepoint and rug hooking. When I graduated to a computer, the old-fashioned QWERTY keyboard still made my hands ache, but I couldn’t stop writing. So I put the needlework away for good. Or so I thought.

In 1989, I finally conquered my hand cramps with the Dvorak keyboard. I also started holding pens and pencils between my index and middle fingers instead of the traditional index finger-and-thumb grip we learned in school. With these two factors, I now write with computer or by hand without hurting my hands. (I promise to reprint my article in a few days explaining why the Dvorak keyboard and improved writing method helped me overcome carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis without medical intervention.)

But even with hand pain limited to bad weather, I barely thought about doing needlework until 2010 when I read about knitting or crocheting tiny caps for third world infants. It took me a couple of weeks to find my old needles and hooks, then I grabbed a bi t of the yarn from the tons I’d saved from the old days to knit one cap and crochet another. When I reached the campaign deadline, I put two tiny caps in a box and sent them to the Caps for Good Campaign run by Save the Children. I did ask them to contact me if they ran the campaign again. But with no word since, I had to let the needlework go again for the time being.

Still, I was hooked. (You’ll excuse the expression.) I wanted to make things, not for myself, but to share the fruits of my skills with people who need them. In the following months I scoured the internet and made phone calls all the way into Phoenix, but even the referrals I followed up on turned out to be outdated or my emails went unanswered. I finally went back to writing, but I couldn’t forget the dream.

Then in 2013, Jim and I were at the Jo-ann’s store waiting to have my fabric measured and cut. I commented that the clever fabric design the lady in front of us chose was more appropriate for Halloween than spring, and she said she was going to make blouses for friends. When I said the design reminded me of one of our favorite TV shows, "Bones," she said she likes to sew and do needlework while watching TV. That’s when I mentioned doing needlework for charity, and she said she makes caps for cancer patients. Well, I pounced!

We exchanged names and phone numbers, and I was soon making my first knit cap. In December, seven of my caps went to women who want something pretty to cover their temporarily bald heads, and I’ve resolved to make at least twelve knit or crochet caps in 2014. Now I alternate my writing with needlework, depending on how I feel. Occasional weather systems still make my hands and other body parts ache, but neither the writing nor the needlework hurt anymore. In fact, I feel much better when I’m doing things that make a difference in someone else’s life. Maybe that’s because I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing with my time and energy.

 

 

With lots of yarn in various

shades of brown, I mix them

together and add interesting features

SO CAN YOU
 
This experience has strengthened my belief that if I ask God--or the universe, if you prefer--for something, sooner or later, I’ll get an answer. Even if it’s not exactly what I asked for, chances are it’ll satisfy my need.

If you have a skill, you can probably find a way to use it to help someone else, especially if you do it to help a person in need. I promise that taking the opportunity to be useful to others will make your life better too.
　

　
The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.

Friday Peace Vigil, Casa Grande, AZ, and surrounding area, January 3, 2014:

PEACE VIGIL
CASA GRANDE, AZ
Friday, January 3, 2014
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
W. McCartney Rd.. & N. Pinal Ave.

Peace Vigils are held every Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Casa Grande from mid-December to mid-April. Come and stand for Peace! Bring a sign or a sign can be provided - and bring another peace activist. The more the merrier! Call Debbie Jordan (520-494-0437) or Tony Fasline (520-426-0070) for details.
　


THIS WEEK:

The holidays are finally over and we’re beginning a brand New Year. To be honest, I like this last part of the entire range of year-end festivities best of all. My health and psyche always improve when I no longer have to explain why I can’t take part in all the regular traditions that too many people consider religious obligations, even though none of them originated in the era they’re considered to represent.

I’m allergic, literally, to almost everything about all the third-quarter festivities that are such an inherent part of the Euro-American culture. The onset of cold weather, diet-busting fare, and holiday greenery have always threatened my already delicate health. When I was in elementary school, my sensitivity was so bad that the last few days I spent in a closed classroom with a festive Christmas tree left me unconscious for the first two or three days of every holiday vacation.

Unfortunately, instead of being understanding when those things attack my weakened immune system, people who claim to love me only criticize and punish me for the unforgivable ‘social crime’ of "bringing everyone down." Now that I’m too old and sick to don that false "mask of health" to please those cruel people, I use my time taking better care of myself than ever before and working on different writing projects that, I hope, will encourage people to help end poverty and war and build a society marked by real prosperity and true peace.

And on the very final holiday of the season, spanning the last day of one year and the first of the next, I get a real kick out of refocusing my energies, such as they are at this stage of my life, on the work I plan to keep on doing as my little part in helping us reach that goal.

So, Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you’ve made your resolution to do something positive for someone who needs it, and that you’ve vowed to help make this a better world for all.

As always, I invite everyone to join me in a vow to use our blessings, skills, and talents to build a society without poverty or war in which everyone is able to enjoy at least the basic benefits of prosperity and peace.

Meanwhile, send out your positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers for all the suffering souls all around the world!

　

The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.