RC Vasavada- Hindu

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          RC Vasavada

I was born in a small town in the state of Rajasthan in Northwestern India and came to the United States when I was 21. I am a practicing Hindu but not at all strict or ritualistic.  I don’t go to temple and I practice in my own way. I pray for a minute or two each day. Hindus believe in honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, virtue and compassion, among others.

While there are many deities, we believe that they are just aspects or manifestations of a single ultimate god. When I pray, I have chosen to pray to the deity Shankar (Shiva). It helps me to visualize my creator. Hindus are very flexible and acknowledge other religions. I often go to church with Tina on Christmas and we celebrate Christmas together as a family.

One of the most important Hindu holidays, Diwali, just passed. This year it was celebrated on November 14 – the third day of Diwali, the 5-day Festival of Lights. It is in essence our new year celebration, signifying the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil and hope over despair. As a child, I remember celebrating this holiday with my parents and family.  We were a family of six brothers and three sisters. I’m the oldest son. Our house would be illuminated with little oil lamps in front and inside.  My mother would have made all sorts of sweets. After special prayers in the morning to various deities including Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, we would have a festive breakfast with lots of sweets. Later we would visit and exchange greetings with friends. At night we’d enjoy some fireworks. Those few days were a very special and a joyous occasion for the whole family.

 

 

 

Gus Moutos- Greek Orthodox

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        Gus Moutos

Greek Orthodox Christmas

I was born and raised in a small village called Rentina in the rugged mountains of central Greece.  Like most Greeks, I was raised in the Orthodox Church.  We celebrated Christmas on December 25th with many of the common western activities and family gatherings.  Some Orthodox, especially the Russians, continue to celebrate Christmas on January 6 based on the Julian calendar.  Whichever day is celebrated, the season begins with a six-week fasting period lasting until Christmas, which my Mother strictly enforced.  We attended church regularly including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I liked to participate as a chanter in church, especially on holidays because parishioners would provide extra food to the chanters.  This was important because I, my mother, and my three brothers were always hungry during the war, and extra food was welcome especially during the winter.

In the village, there was less emphasis on gift giving on Christmas, and Santa Claus was replaced by Saint Basil, a bishop of ancient Cappadocia who would bring presents to children between December 25 and January 1.  On New Year’s Day (St Basil’s Day) my friends and I would visit many homes singing holiday carols, and we were rewarded with small amounts of money or candies.  New Year’s Day was a day of celebration with more family gatherings where gifts were exchanged particularly for the children.

The Christmas celebration period culminates on Epiphany, January 6.  Almost everyone in the village would gather at a wide spot in the river near our local Monastery to participate in the Blessing of the Waters which commemorates Jesus’ baptism.  The priest would bless the waters of the world then throw a gold cross into the river.  Swimmers dove in hoping to find the cross and bring it safely to shore.  The one who found the cross was said to have good luck the entire year.

 

Steve Harris- Buddhist

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         Steve Harris

What attracts me to Buddhism is the clear path to become “awake” to kindness, compassion and our connection to the life around us. To free myself from cultural and psychological bondage. I have come to realize that my young adult years were caught up in my own drama: anger, judgment, fear, resentments, protecting my fragile ego; satisfying my own narcissistic desires. Buddhism is a way to see life differently.

Siddhartha, the Indian prince, left his comfortable way of life to search for what was true and what were merely the illusions that our mind creates.  He discovered what came to be called “The Four Noble Truths”; that life for all of us has pain and suffering, and we all search for happiness. He created a way out of the pain and suffering that came to be called “The Eight Fold Path”. The dharma or teachings of Siddhartha and other enlightened beings are focused on this path.

The path includes: vision, intent, speech, action, labor, effort, mindfulness, and meditation. For me mindfulness and mediation are the most helpful. Mindfulness is simply the practice of bringing ourselves fully into the present and continuing to bring us back whenever we have drifted away. So we have two things in play here; one is our awareness of being in the present moment, and the other is aware when we are leaving. For me mindfulness during the day is looking at what I’m thinking about: is this a kind caring thought about myself or others or is this a angry, fearful, upset, hurt ego thought?”

Practicing meditation can bring about a synchronization of our mind and body that can bring about a peaceful, steady wakefulness to our mind’s agitated confused states. There are a variety of ways to meditate; calm abiding, resting, and sitting meditation. During meditation all kinds of thoughts will arise; instead of jumping up and taking care of what comes up I say to myself, “I’m looking at this thought and I now go back to breathing in and out”. So all thoughts are treated equally. I approach meditation as a chance to look at my mind. Most of us hardly ever “look” at what we’re thinking about. It’s a chance to discover ourselves. Mediation can be done on a walk or before we get up in the morning. There is no one right way to do it.

Another powerful concept is dependent origination; every thing comes from something else. All life originated from life. We are originally part of the universe.  For me this also means that our thoughts become what we say and do. And what we say and do is who we are.

Orisja Sarles- Russian Orthodox

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            Orisja Sarles

 

Right now, I don’t practice any religion, but when I was growing up in Berlin, my family was Russian Orthodox.  My father was originally from the Ukraine.  I think that what I most remember as a child was going to church with my father and the rest of the family and all of the kids had to stand up during the two hour service.  Only old people were allowed to sit. That was not wonderful. I do remember how beautiful the singing was.  But I don’t think, even then, I was a particularly religious person.  So I left the church even before I left Berlin to come to the United States at the age of 17.  I think it is wonderful to be in a country where one can worship as one wishes.  And I really respect the many forms of worship we have here at the Manor and in the United States.

 

Daphne Fautin- Jewish

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           Daphne Fautin

Hanukkah is a funny holiday in that it has become so much more important here in the United States. In reality, it is a minor holiday which celebrated the rededication of the temple of Jerusalem.  However, here in the US, it gives Jews an alternative to Christmas so that Jewish-American children and their families have something to get excited about during the December holiday season.  Oddly enough, I was in Israel about ten years ago, and found that Hanukkah had also grown in popularity there as well.  Passover, which happens around Easter-time, is a much more important holiday and much more important to me.  Oil is important at Hanukkah because the oil, that was supposed to burn for only one day, burned for eight – thus the miracle that Hanukkah celebrates. We eat latkes – potato pancakes – fried in A LOT of oil. I was disappointed in Israel to eat the fried dough balls (sufganiyot – supposedly jelly doughnuts) and found them tasteless; here we eat doughnut holes, which are much better!

 

Craft Fair Review

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By Connie Kent

Though the 2020 Craft Fair on 5-6 November was smaller than usual, and it was different in many ways, it was a success for the twenty-five vendors and one hundred sixty-five shoppers who participated. Covid restrictions required that we limit the number of people in the auditorium, and storage of dining room furniture in half the auditorium limited the size of displays and the number of vendors. To maximize the number of shoppers, vendors couldn’t be present at their tables during the fair. Shoppers were limited to RVM residents and employees. The fair was held over two days rather than the usual single day.

 

Eight shoppers at a time were greeted by a sheriff wearing a black vest and sheriff’s badge. The sheriff was in place in case we had long, unruly lines of shoppers. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Shoppers seemed to spread themselves out over the two days of the fair, and at no time were there long lines of people waiting to come in. The sheriff offered visitors a shopping bag, encouraged them to follow the arrows on the floor as they moved through the displays, and reminded them to maintain six foot distance from each other.

 

Inside the auditorium, a floor monitor was available with hand sanitizer and to direct traffic and answer questions. Following the procedure that worked well at the Big Sale, shoppers took their bags of treasures to a receipt writer, who noted each vendor number and the price of each item. Then shoppers took their receipt to a cashier just outside the auditorium and paid for their purchases.

 

One of this year’s innovations was a Virtual Fair during the month before the actual Craft Fair. Vendors who chose could advertise their offerings on The Complement website and/or on Channel 900. In addition, a number of craft items were on exhibit in display cabinets just outside the Plaza and the Manor dining rooms. Many vendors indicated they would accept advance sales. Advance sales accounted for about 30% of the total proceeds.

 

Another innovation was a two item Silent Auction during the week preceding the Fair. A quilt made by the Piece Makers, and a Sharlyn Woolley memorial afghan, made of sampler squares knitted by Sharlyn and assembled by Connie Kent, were on exhibit in the Manor lobby for people to bid on.

 

Many vendors contributed their proceeds to charities such as specific Foundation funds like Fairy Godmothers or the Disaster Relief Fund. Others, such as Piece Makers, will use theirs for materials to make things to donate to charities such as the Maslow Project.

We look forward to including some of this year’s innovations in future years’ Craft Fairs. We hope, though, by next November, to once again invite the Rogue Valley public and have a bigger fair with more vendors.

 

 

 

Getting the Point

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BUT ON THE OTHER HORN….

by Bob Buddemeier

Have you heard the expression, “on the horns of a dilemma”?  Well, I’m here to tell you what it’s like to be gored by one.  Not just any old dilemma, but an Existential Dilemma, one of the most dangerous kind.  It came charging off the internet in the form of an RVMlist post by Gini Armstrong that said, among other things, “Information will be rolled out soon on nutritional content of the various [RVM Dining Services] recipes. It won’t happen all at once as it is a labor-intensive process to go through the recipes.”

As an incompletely reformed chemist, I know that nutritional information on a recipe remains valid only if the recipe – and the food derived from it – doesn’t change.  And from long and tedious experience, I know that people tend not to do labor-intensive things if they are going to have to do them over again real soon.

Conclusion – we’re on the cosmic food wheel, with identical meals cycling every six weeks into infinity.  Even with my life expectancy, I expect to soon know the script by heart.

      Existential Dilemma, horned

So what’s the dilemma? Well, when I came here I realized that RVM is one long continuum between a medium-high-end resort, with lots of recreational facilities and an extremely forbearing staff, and a nursing home with geezer-crossing signs and spiffy licensed facilities.

So, I happily positioned myself about halfway along the line and well off to one side, and set about enjoying all the diverse advantages. One of which was the resorters’ favorite indoor sport of reminiscing about how much better the food used to be.  You see, the perceived decline was because of standardizing the menu to save money by making fixed orders of wholesale foods in advance, and then, of course, with all decisions already made you didn’t need such a skilled kitchen staff, and…

It was good rebellious fun.  Almost as good as talking about religion and politics at the table.  But the fates (who ride herd on dilemmas) were watching. And my cardiologist said my heart was wearing out and needed radically lower blood pressures, and that there was about 10% too much of me, and then the salt thing too.  And my blood sugar kept creeping up and my endocrinologist said I couldn’t increase my metformin dose without risking very painful side effects.  And then I realized, I NEED THAT DAMNED NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION!   Pretty soon I’ll be eating whole plants.

I’m not off to the side of the continuum any more.  And I’m sagging toward one end. And the fact that I use trekking poles instead of canes (so much more macho, don’t you think?) is not going to preserve my self-image.  The dreaded horned dilemma has seen through it and is charging head-down, and I am somehow going to have to find a hobby more gratifying than cognitive dissonance.  Or eating.

Is there any hope for novelty?  Could Dining Services maybe have a Wild Card Special for the gamblers among us?  Or a Russian Roulette Plate for those who just can’t take one | more | minute | of | moderation?

Well, that’s it.  If you were expecting a neatly wrapped up story, tough.  Just remember that you are in a CCRC. There is a moral here somewhere, but it’s up to the reader to figure out, since it will probably depend on location relative to the continuum.  Or more likely, on the difference between perceived and actual locations.  Bon appetit.

RVM Staff Interviews

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This section provides the notes on interviews with Jim Van Horn, Eric Eisenberg, Drew Gilliland, and some of the FS staff.  The information has not necessarily been verified, and there are a number of remaining questions to be answered before RPG can finish determining what advice to give to residents and what kind of situations to prepare for.

As of 10-29-20, Scott Wetenkamp, KenKelley, and Bob Buddemeier form an Infrastructure team with the goal of understanding RVM utilities (particularly the electrical and water systems and their interactions) adequately to design appropriate plans for possible earthquake responses.  A team member from one of the towers is needed.

Click here to view/download:

Staff interview PDF

 

 

Cat People helping Cats

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Cat People Helping Cat People Helping Cats

by Joni Johnson

Salome Sato started something wonderful about three years ago.  She created a registry for cat owners who were going on vacation and needed sitters for their babies.  By the end of those three years, she  had about 35 people on board.  Some of them owned cats and wanted occasional help, some of them had cats and were willing to take in short-term boarders and some were just people who loved cats and were willing to cat-sit even though they no longer had a cat of their own.

In order to be placed on the registry, each interested person has to fill out a registration form  which includes questions about their cat- breed, temperament, age etc.  That is Salome’s part.  After that, it is up to the interested party to find their own sitter from the list. The registry is still working.

Click on this link to see if you are still on the registry. Names for Cat List If you are interested in removing your name, please contact Salome via email at salome789@gmail.com or by phone at  808.232.8541.  If you are interested in adding your name, please fill out the registration sheet attached to this link ‘20.10.25 – CAT REGISTRATION FORM rev. #1 and send it to Salome via email or call her to do it by phone.  Once you are added to the registry, you will get your copy and then when you are in need, you have your people to contact.

Someone sent a joke around today and it was too good to just pass up so I am putting it here and I know you will understand:

This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her dog. It was obvious she thought her dog understood her. I came into my house & told my cat. We laughed a lot.

 

 

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Local Information

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