RVM Spring Birds
photo collage by Reina Lopez
Posted in A&I
May Library Display
The library volunteers decided that it is time for Oregon natives and transplants to recognize our beautiful state despite all the troubles of the past year. With that in mind, a wide variety of books about Oregon are on the Manor Library display table for your reading and visual pleasure during the coming month. These include books by Manor authors John Kemper, Ann Sutton, and Carol Barrett. There are volumes about Medford and the Rogue River. There are even some novels based in Oregon. A small sample of the books are listed below:
History of a People, by Stephen Dow Beckham. This is considered a classic history of Southern Oregon native peoples during the 1850’s and the Rogue River Wars.
Skookum, by Shannon Applegate. This is a recounting of the Applegate family, early settlers in our area.
Camp White–City in the Desert, by George Kramer. Learn about the many events at Camp White during World War II.
Oregon Wine: A Deep Rooted History, by Scott Sursa. All about the development of wine making in Oregon.
Display created by Bonny Turner
Book Review: Gods of the Upper Air
Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists
Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century,
by Charles King (Doubleday, 2019)
Reviewed by Anne Newins
Anne Newins
Many of us may remember a class that changed our world view. In my case, it was a cultural anthropology class taken during my freshman year of college. Even though I was raised in a highly diverse environment, I had not thought about how much behavior and values were dependent on one’s culture. In four short months, I became much more tolerant and accepting of others’ viewpoints.
Gods of the Upper Air allowed me to revisit those heady days. Charles King, a professor of international affairs and government at Georgetown University, has taken a thought-provoking side trip. King’s absorbing account is about the development of cultural anthropology as an academic discipline, but it also is part adventure story and part biography. The book profiles the father of cultural anthropology, Franz Boas, and a number of his protégées, including Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ella Cara Deloria.
Since the field examines cultural variation among humans, cultural anthropology often 
relies on fieldwork that take place in far flung locations. The researchers must develop productive working relationships with their study subjects, while trying to decide if what they are learning from their informants is accurate or highly subjective. Obviously, this is not easy to do and takes enormous time, patience, and strong observational skills.
These lively and energetic scholars often had to cope with personal poverty, disease and danger during their fieldwork. They were confronting historical opinions that were racist, sexist, and frequently unaccepting of women in academia. Among others, of their major adversaries was Madison Grant, a well-known eugenicist of the time.
Most have heard of Margaret Mead and her groundbreaking work in American Samoa and New Guinea. Ruth Benedict was a lover, and most importantly, her mentor at
Columbia University. African American Zora Neale Hurston is famous for fiction writing, but was noted for her work about American folklore. Ella Cara Deloria, of Dakota Indian descent and linguistically fluent, conducted complex work about the Sioux.
Reviewer Anthony Clemons describes the book as “creative storytelling with rich historical detail to show the reader that facts contradicting established norms rarely outmatch the willingness of the masses to cling to those norms, leaving the potential for ideological change to the tyranny of time.”
A copy of the book may be found at the Rogue Manor Library.
Book Review: How to Avoid Climate Disaster
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster – The Solutions We Have and The Breakthroughs We Need
By Bill Gates, Reviewed by Sally Densmore
Sally Densmore
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda are best known for their work through their Foundation to rid the third world of devasting diseases like malaria. Through that work, he realized that these low-income peoples were also the most vulnerable to the perils of climate change. Being a scientist, he decided to inform himself of the facts and the possible solutions. And that’s what he has laid out in this very readable book.
I have been a conservationist and recycler for years, and have had a Prius since 2006, so I didn’t need to be persuaded of the need to deal with this crisis. This book, however, has convinced me that we can’t really keep nibbling around the edges. Bold action is needed now. And I’ve learned things I’ve never heard anyone else discuss.
There is so much talk about the need for all of us to start driving electric vehicles, but very little about the fact that two-thirds of our electricity comes from fossil fuels. The biggest surprise was the fact that 31% of our CO2 emissions comes from the manufacture of concrete, steel and plastics.
First he delineates the causes of greenhouse gases: how we plug in, how we make things, how we grow things, how we get around and how we keep cool and stay warm. Then he discusses how we will have to use innovative research to adapt to a warmer climate. The first page states:
Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically
adds to the atmosphere every year. . . . This is where we are today. Zero
is what we need to aim for. . . .This sounds difficult, because it will be.
In order to get to zero by 2050, we’ll have to have tough governmental policies in place by 2030.
Gates doesn’t pretend to be the perfect spokesman, guiltily confessing that he is a rich man who has an enormous carbon footprint (he now buys sustainable jet fuel). I really appreciate the easy, conversational tone he uses in the book, giving excellent examples of the scientific concepts involved. I highly recommend this.
Do Cats Grieve?
Daphne and the cats
By Bob Buddemeier
My wife, Daphne Fautin, exercised the Death with Dignity option on March 12. I have written about the human aspects of the process, but humans aren’t the only creatures in our lives or our household
Before
Why cats? Well, they’re family. Frank, the compulsively friendly Siamese and Kip, the neurotic but amusing Tabby, had been with us since somebody dumped them at our house in rural Kansas in 2013. We named Frank after Sinatra with his blue-blue eyes. And Kip was named from Yom Kippur, the holiday we were celebrating when they arrived at our doorstep.
Frank and Daphne
Going beyond that, when you start trying to look Death in the eye, I think it makes you more appreciative of all forms of life, not just your own. Frank was especially close to Daphne – both in terms of bonding and physically. They spent many hours together on the couch, with Frank napping up against her leg while she read or did crosswords
As her time dwindled down, one of her most frequently expressed regrets was her inability to explain to the cats what was going on. Other cat people at RVM (there are many) would say “Oh, they know.” I have to agree, professional skepticism notwithstanding.
Kip
As time went on, Kip, although a stand-offish cat for 7 years, started sleeping on the bed –even when Daphne took a nap there in the afternoon. Then in the last month, she would get up on the edge of the bed in the evening when Daphne was lying on her back reading. Kip would put her forepaws and chin on Daphne’s ribcage or belly, and sit propped against her until the lights went out.
At about the same time Frank (always friendly anyway) adopted a new behavior – he would get onto Daphne’s lap, press tight against her chest, and push his head up under her chin. About as close to a hug as you can get when you have short forelegs.
Neither behavior was seen before that, or with anybody else. Do they smell leukemia? Is there some “it’s almost over” cue in body language? Nothing is certain, but if I had to bet, I’d say that some kind of recognition was going on in their little kitty minds.
After
Daphne died on a Friday; the atending relatives left on Monday. That morning: Kip didn’t put in an appearance until 11 a.m., and when she did, she was almost completely silent. Both behaviors are very atypical. Frank got up 6:30-ish and went out on his leash – but only for a very short period. When he came in, he went to sleep on the couch for the rest of the morning. Also very atypical. Visitor fatigue? Grief? The answer probably depends on how much of a cat person you are. The next week cements it in my mind – definitely grief. If a cat can be said to mope, he mopes – sleeps even more than his usual 16 hrs/day, doesn’t claw or climb his cat tree, lies on the floor (instead of on elevated surfaces), responds to but doesn’t solicit petting.
Kip comes back into a more normal mode after a few days, but it’s almost 10 days after Daphne’s death before Frank starts to play with things, rub against legs, and sneak out w/o leash to find his neighborhood buddies who dispense belly rubs. I continue to try to remember that I need to seek him out and give attention. He’s a little like Daphne – I’m supposed to know when I should pay attention and not wait for invitations. A totemic animal — I’ve apparently been married to a member of the Cat Clan for 34 years.
Neither of the cats has ever demonstrated again the behaviors that they consistently showed with Daphne in the interval just before she died.
I put the attractive little chest containing Daphne’s ashes near one of Frank’s favorite napping spots. Rank superstition? Positioning the unrecognizable remains of a dead person and an animal as if it would make a difference to either? Well, so what. It felt right so I did it. I spend enough time thinking.
More Six-Word Novels
Another batch of 6-word Covid novels submitted by RVM residents. Our thanks again to Eleanor Lippman for kicking off this project.
Too much time on our hands. (Mary Bjorkholm)
Sun’s shining. Sky’s blue. All’s well. (Willi Zilkey)
Joy to all residents living alone. (Carolyn Shirk)
Enough! Six words are too much! (Doyne Mraz)
No longer working, grateful for retirement. (Janet and Jere Scott)
Is we is, is we isn’t? ( Gail Schaffer)
Every moment together is a gift. ( Kay Presnell)
My dog brings me pure joy. (Dottie Prideaux)
Darn mask fogs up my glasses! (Jim Quan)
Ready to go? Got your mask? (Victoria Gorrell)
We are thankful to be thankful. (Carol Solomon)
2020 frenzy, morbid Covid, monochrome syndrome. (Janet and Jere Scott)
Wearing a mask is such a task! (William Silfvast)
Vaccination, maxvacation going out at last! (Patricia Robb)
Dreaming Praying for Covid-19 to end! (Anita Sumariwalla)
I’m not throwing away my shot! ( Ron Silverman)
To SIP has a new meaning. ( Dolores Fisette)
Remind me – what is your name? (Alex Maksymowicz)
I miss seeing so many friends. (William Silfvast)
I am grateful to be here. (William Silfvast)
To mask or not to mask . (Barb Field)
All is quiet except for RVMlist. (Janet Ross)
Our fudge tastes so very good. (Carol Solomon)
Can hardly wait to get some. (Sue Silfvast)
Music provides for me much pleasure. (William Silfvast)
So thankful to be an American! (Helen Russ)
Positive thinking yields a happier life. (Robert Carter)
Where do the brown bags go? (Sol Blechman)
RVM = shelter from the storm. (Pratibha Eastwood)
Apart but together, still a community. (Victoria Gorrell)
What will I not do today? (Ken Kelley)
EAT…WALK…NAP…ZOOM…EAT…T.V. (Bill & Dorothy Powell)
Inspection, Detection; Infection, Dejection; Injection; Protection. (Dennis Murphy)
In cocoon with love and meows. (Karen Frair)
Watching birds at feeder every day. (jbbardin)
Makeup? hmmm…give up, mask up! (Janet and Jere Scott)
Mired down, Tired, Wired, Fired up. (Edwin Bennett)
Multiple months inert. Possible to revert? (Don Vermeer)
Hawaiian Native Arts
by Tom Conger
Hawaii, the most remote socio-economic complex on the planet, has been a reliable source of residents for RVM since our CCRC opened in 1961. The culture in Hawaii is fairly young, having only been exposed to “western” mores since the 1820 arrival from Boston of Christian missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In the brief couple of centuries since, the original Polynesian culture—presumably brought with original settlers to the isles from the Marquesas ca. 400 CE—has been flavored by influences from many global cultures; these include Asian contract workers, Portuguese middle managers, Scottish and German engineers, and other imported population groups who came to work in the lucrative agricultural economy which prevailed from the time of the Kamehamehas until recent decades when the last sugar cane and pineapple were harvested and the processing plants shut down. This rainbow of influences, including languages, food, clothing, and other cultural customs has contributed to what is often seen as a “melting pot” society. And from that variegated melding of diverse cultures has emerged what is now regarded as the “aloha spirit.” Exactly how that is defined is subject to any number of different perspectives, but an attitude of friendly tolerance does pervade in the islands.
(And they eat a lot of SPAM… 😁)
There is no question that RVM does maintain a certain Hawaiian flavor, as anywhere from 10% to 17% of all residents have some roots in the Aloha State. The reasons for this are many; foremost is the astronomical cost of living in Hawaii, coupled with comparatively reasonable pricing of accommodations here at RVM. Given that imponderable cost of living in the most remote civilization the world, with its single industry economy, many of today’s young adults are making their careers/lives elsewhere from the isles of their birth. Thus retirement on the left coast of the vast US affords retirees simpler contact with their kids and grands.
To make the transition from that youngest and most unique state in the union requires one to move away from many distinct cultural factors which make up life in Hawaii. Some facets of that distinct lifestyle are what binds many of us to our native shores, and most displaced kama’aina seem to do what they can to replicate on the mainland their accustomed culture. Among the most common carryovers are food, fashion, and furnishings. For purposes of this series of articles, we want to focus on the artifacts which folks bring with them when they relocate (see: fashion & furnishings). As this writer moved into RVM a mere fortnight before the lockdown, and this presentation is getting under way as pandemic restrictions are just beginning to loosen up, we will have to start small and expand as we make more contacts amongst our Hawaiian contingent, and exposure to more artifacts is made possible.
Shelly Campbell brought with her a nice collection of articles made in Hawaii which serve as daily reminders of her 46 happy years there.
She has two Hawaiian quilts, both apparently hibiscus pattern, which adorn the master bed and a daybed/pune’e.
Please note the koa bedstead by Martin & MacArthur.
Also by Martin & MacArthur is this koa coffee table with ceramic palm frond inlay
This handmade koa dresser is a lovely addition to the boudoir.
Also the koa nightstand
A fine painting by contemporary artist Russell Lowery depicts Lanai island as seem from a Maui beachfront:
These are some examples of Hawaii artisanship serving proudly in the cottage of one resident. To round out this first installment, here are a few items from the writer’s own treasures:
Lauhala hat with feather lei hatband (Maui craftsfolk): birthday present (l-o-n-g ago).
Koa chest by Maui woodworker from 1984.
Koa calabashes and coffee table (family heirlooms)
Koa rocker by Martin & MacArthur (late 1980s)
So, as you can see from just two ol’ kama’aina, there is a nucleus of Hawaii crafts here on campus. We encourage readers who might also have items of historic or artistic significance to contact The Complement and share what’s made it from that distant archipelago to the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon. Me ke aloha pumehana. ( for non Hawaiians, this means Warmest Aloha)
St. Patrick’s Day Manor Door Decor
photo collage by Reina Lopez
Main Manor residents like to decorate their doors, especially for holidays.
