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The Japanese Lover
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In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family—like thousands of other Japanese Americans—are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.
Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.
Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover is written with the same keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits. The Japanese Lover is a moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.
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About the Author
Hometown:San Rafael, California
Date of Birth:August 2, 1942
Place of Birth:Lima, Peru
Read an Excerpt
The Japanese Lover
When Irina Bazili began working at Lark House in 2010, she was twenty-three years old but already had few illusions about life. Since the age of fifteen she had drifted from one job, one town, to another. She could not have imagined she would find a perfect niche for herself in that senior residence, or that over the next three years she would come to be as happy as in her childhood, before fate took a hand. Founded in the mid-twentieth century to offer shelter with dignity to elderly persons of slender means, for some unknown reason from the beginning it had attracted left-wing intellectuals, oddballs, and second-rate artists. Lark House had undergone many changes over the years but still charged fees in line with each resident's income, the idea being to create a certain economic and racial diversity. In practice, all the residents were white and middle class, and the only diversity was between freethinkers, spiritual searchers, social and ecological activists, nihilists, and some of the few hippies still alive in the San Francisco Bay Area.
At Irina's first interview, the director of the community, Hans Voigt, pointed out that she was too young for a job with such responsibility, but since they had a vacancy they needed to fill urgently, she could stay until they found someone more suitable. Irina thought the same could be said of him: he looked like a chubby little boy going prematurely bald, someone who was out of his depth running an establishment of this sort. As time went by, she realized that the initial impression of Voigt could be deceiving, at a certain distance and in poor light: in fact, he was fifty-four years old and had proved himself to be an excellent administrator. Irina assured him that her lack of qualifications was more than compensated for by the experience she had of dealing with old people in her native Moldova.
Her shy smile softened the director's heart. He forgot to ask her for a reference and instead began outlining her duties, which could be quickly summarized: to make life easier for the second- and third-level residents. Irina would not be working with anyone on the first level, because they lived independently as tenants in an apartment building. Nor would she be working with those on level four—the aptly named Paradise—because they were awaiting their transfer to heaven and spent most of the time dozing, and thus did not require the kind of assistance she was there to provide. Irina's duties were to accompany the residents on their visits to doctors, lawyers, and accountants; to help them with their medical and tax forms; to take them on shopping expeditions; and to perform various other tasks. Her only link with the clients in Paradise, Voigt told her, would be to plan their funerals, but for that she would receive specific instructions, because the wishes of the dying did not always coincide with those of their families. Lark House residents tended to have myriad religious beliefs, which made their funerals rather complicated ecumenical affairs.
Voigt explained that only the domestic staff, the care and health assistants, were obliged to wear a uniform. There was however a tacit dress code for the rest of the employees; respect and good taste were the order of the day when it came to clothes. For example, he said emphatically, the T-shirt printed with Malcolm X's face that Irina was wearing was definitely inappropriate. In fact it wasn't Malcolm X but Che Guevara, but Irina didn't tell him this because she assumed that Hans Voigt would never have heard of the guerrilla leader who fifty years after his heroic exploits was still worshipped in Cuba and by a handful of radical followers in Berkeley, where she was living. The T-shirt had cost two dollars in a used clothing store, and was almost new.
"No smoking on the premises," the director warned her.
"I don't smoke or drink, sir."
"Is your health good? That's important when you're dealing with old people."
"Anything special I ought to know about you?"
"Well, I'm addicted to fantasy videos and novels. You know, like Tolkien, Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman."
"What you do in your free time is your business, young lady, just as long as you stay focused at work."
"Of course. Listen, sir, if you give me a chance you'll see I know how to get along with elderly people. You won't regret it," the young woman said with feigned self-assurance.
Once the formal interview in his office was concluded, Voigt showed her around the premises, which housed some two hundred and fifty people, with an average age of eighty-five. Lark House had once been the magnificent property of a chocolate magnate, who not only bequeathed it to the city but left a generous donation to finance its upkeep. It consisted of the main house, a pretentious mansion where the offices, communal areas, library, dining room, and workshops were situated, and a row of pleasant redwood tile buildings that fitted in well with the ten acres of grounds, which looked wild but were in fact carefully tended by a host of gardeners. The independent apartments and the buildings housing the second- and third-level residents were linked by wide, enclosed walkways, which allowed wheelchairs to circulate sheltered from the extremes of climate, but were glassed in on both sides to provide a view of nature, the best solace for the troubles of all ages. Paradise, a detached concrete building, would have looked out of place were it not for the fact it was completely overgrown with ivy. The library and games room were open day and night, the beauty salon kept flexible hours, and the workshops provided a variety of classes from painting to astrology for those who still longed for pleasant surprises in their future. The Shop of Forgotten Objects, staffed by volunteer ladies, offered for sale clothing, furniture, jewelry, and other treasures cast off by the residents, or left behind by the deceased.
"We have an excellent cinema club and show films three times a week in the library," Voigt told her.
"What kind of films?" asked Irina, hoping they might contain vampires or science fiction.
"A committee chooses them, and they prefer crime movies, especially Tarantino. There's a certain fascination with violence in here, but don't worry, they're well aware it's fiction and that the actors will reappear safe and sound in other films. Let's call it a safety valve. Several of our guests fantasize about killing somebody, usually a family member."
"Me too," said Irina without hesitation.
Thinking she must be joking, Voigt laughed indulgently. He appreciated a sense of humor almost as much as he did patience among his staff.
Squirrels and an unusually large number of deer roamed freely among the ancient trees of the grounds, Voigt explained, adding that the does gave birth to and raised their young until they could fend for themselves. The grounds also served as a bird sanctuary, above all for skylarks, whose presence there had given the facility its name: Lark House. There were several cameras strategically placed to monitor the animals in their habitat and also any residents who might wander off or suffer an accident, but Lark House had no strict security measures. By day the main gates remained open, with only a couple of unarmed guards patrolling the grounds. These two retired policemen, aged seventy and seventy-four, offered more than adequate protection, since no thief in his right mind would waste time on penniless old folks.
Voigt and Irina passed a pair of women in wheelchairs, a group carrying easels and paint boxes to an open-air art class, and several residents out exercising dogs as careworn as them. The property adjoined the bay, and when the tide came in it was possible to go kayaking, which some of the residents not yet disabled by their infirmities were happy to do. This is how I would like to live, thought Irina, taking deep breaths of the sweet aroma of pines and laurels. She couldn't help comparing these pleasant surroundings to the sordid dives she had drifted through since the age of fifteen.
"Last but not least, Miss Bazili, I should mention the two ghosts, because I'm sure that will be the first thing our Haitian staff will tell you about."
"I don't believe in ghosts, Mr. Voigt."
"Congratulations. Neither do I. The ones in Lark House are a young woman wearing a pink gauze dress, and a three-year-old child. The woman is Emily, the chocolate magnate's daughter. Poor Emily died of grief after her son drowned in the pool at the end of the 1940s. It was then that the magnate abandoned the house and created the Lark House Foundation."
"Did the boy drown in the pool you showed me?"
"Yes, but no one else has died there that I know of."
Irina soon changed her mind about ghosts, realizing that Emily and her son weren't the only resident spirits. She was to discover that many of the old folk were permanently accompanied by their dead.
Early the next morning, Irina arrived at work in her best pair of jeans and a discreet T-shirt. She quickly confirmed that the atmosphere at Lark House was relaxed without being negligent. It was more like a college than an old people's home. The food was as good as that of any reasonable Californian restaurant, and organic as far as possible. The cleaning staff did a thorough job, and the health aides and nurses were as cheerful as could be expected under the circumstances. It took her only a few days to learn the names and quirks of her colleagues and the residents in her care. The handful of Spanish and French phrases she memorized helped win over the staff, who came almost exclusively from Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti. Although what they earned did not correspond to the hard work they put in, very few of them went around with long faces.
"You have to spoil the grannies a bit, but always treat them with respect. The same goes for the grandpas, but you need to watch out for them, because some of them get up to mischief," she was told by Lupita Farias, a stocky woman with the features of an Olmec statue who was head of the cleaning staff. Having worked at Lark House for thirty-two years and having access to every room, Lupita knew all the inhabitants intimately. She had learned about their lives, could see at a glance what was wrong with them, and accompanied them in their sorrows.
"Watch out for depression, Irina. That's very common here. If you notice that somebody seems isolated or very sad, if they stay in bed or stop eating, come and find me right away, okay?"
"What do you do in those cases, Lupita?"
"It depends. I stroke them, and they always like that, because old people don't have anyone who touches them, and I get them hooked on a TV series, because nobody wants to die before the final episode. Some of them find comfort in prayer, but there are lots of atheists here, and they don't pray. What's most important is not to leave them on their own. If I'm not around, go and see Cathy. She knows what to do."
Dr. Catherine Hope, a second-level resident, had been the first person to welcome Irina on behalf of the community. At sixty-eight, she was the youngest resident. Ever since being confined to a wheelchair she had opted for the help and company that Lark House offered. She had been living there a couple of years and during that time had become the life and soul of the place.
"The elderly are the most entertaining people in the world," she eventually told Irina. "They have lived a lot, say whatever they like, and couldn't care less about other people's opinion. You'll never get bored here. Our residents are well educated, and if they're in good health they keep on learning and experimenting. This community stimulates them and they can avoid the worst scourge of old age: loneliness."
Irina knew from newspaper reports about the progressive spirit of the Lark House residents. There was a waiting list of several years for admission, which would have been much longer if many of the candidates had not passed away before it was their turn. The old folks in the home were conclusive proof that age, despite all its limitations, does not stop one from having fun and taking part in the hubbub of life. Several of the residents who were active members of Seniors for Peace spent their Friday mornings in street protests at the aberrations and injustices in the world, especially those committed by the American empire, for which they felt responsible. These activists, among whom was an old lady aged a hundred and one, met up in the northern corner of the square opposite the police station with their canes, walkers, and wheelchairs. They held up banners against war or global warming, while the public showed their support by honking their car horns or signing petitions that these furious elders stuck under their noses. The protesters had appeared on television on more than one occasion, while the police were made to look ridiculous as they tried to disperse them with threats of tear gas that never materialized. Clearly moved, Voigt had shown Irina a plaque in the park in honor of a ninety-six-year-old musician, who had died of a seizure with his boots on in broad daylight during a 2006 protest against the war in Iraq.
Irina had grown up in a Moldovan village that was inhabited only by old people and children. She thought of her own grandparents and, as so often in recent years, regretted having abandoned them. Lark House gave her the opportunity to give to others what she hadn't been able to give them, and she kept this in mind as she began looking after those in her care. She soon won the residents over, including several on the first level, the independent ones.
From the start, Alma Belasco had caught her attention. She stood out from the other women thanks not only to her aristocratic bearing but to the magnetic force field that seemed to separate her from the rest of humanity. Lupita insisted that the Belasco woman did not fit in at Lark House and would not last long: any day now the same chauffeur who had brought her in a Mercedes-Benz would come and take her away again. And yet the months went by and this didn't happen. Irina did no more than observe Alma Belasco from a distance, because Hans Voigt had instructed her to focus on people from the second and third levels, and not to get distracted by the independents. Besides, Irina had more than enough to do in looking after her own clients—they were not to be called patients—and learning the ins and outs of her new job. As part of her training, she had to study the videos of recent funerals: a Buddhist Jewish woman and a repentant agnostic. For her part, Alma Belasco would not have paid any attention to Irina if circumstances had not briefly turned the young woman into the most noteworthy member of the community.
Reading Group Guide
This reading group guide for The Japanese Lover includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco is sent away to live with a wealthy aunt and uncle in California. Her life is quickly changed when she meets the son of her aunt's gardener, Ichimei Fukuda. Young love blossoms between them, until they are cruelly separated when Ichimei and his family are relocated to a Japanese-American internment camp. Throughout their lifetimes, they manage to reunite again and again, but theirs is a love they are forever forced to hide from the prejudiced eyes of the world.
Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her life and forges a friendship with Irina Bazili—a care worker with her own troubled past—at a nursing home in California. As Irina begins to form a relationship with Alma's grandson, Seth, the pair investigates a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma in an effort to uncover the secret of Alma's mysterious Japanese lover.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. As Alma Belasco reflects on her long life and the decisions she made to leave Ichimei and marry Nathaniel, do you think she would have done anything differently if she had had the chance? Why or why not?
2. At the beginning of her time at Lark House, Irina observes, "In itself age doesn't make anyone better or wiser, but only accentuates what they have always been." (p. 13) Do you think this is true of Alma Belasco? Why or why not?
3. Alma and Samuel Mendel are just two of many people who were forced to flee Europe during World War II—leaving their homes and loved ones behind. How does this affect the rest of their lives? How does it impact their view of family?
4. Consider this passage as the Fukudas and other Japanese and Japanese-American families board the buses to the internment camp at Topaz:
"The families gave themselves up because there was no alternative and because by so doing they thought they were demonstrating their loyalty toward the United States and their repudiation of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. This was their contribution to the war effort." (p. 88)
How does the experience at Topaz affect each of the Fukudas' sense of patriotism and their experiences as Americans? How does this change for each character over the course of internment?
5. Compare and contrast how the Belascos, a very formal family, uphold tradition, versus how the Fukudas, a family of recent immigrants and nisei, respect tradition while embracing their new Americanism.
6. Alma and Ichimei both experience the tragedy and loss of WWII firsthand. How does it affect each of them as children? How does it contribute to their understanding of one another as adults later?
7. Ichimei Fukuda and Nathaniel Belasco are the two great loves of Alma's life. How are they able to coexist in her heart?
8. What role does race play in the choices Alma makes about her relationship with Ichimei? How would their relationship have played out in a different time period? Compare this with the choices that Megumi makes in her relationship with the soldier Boyd Anderson.
9. How do the choices of each mother throughout the novel change the lives of their children? Consider Alma, Lillian, and Heideko.
10. In reconstructing her life story for Seth's book, Alma had the opportunity to piece "together the fragments of her biography, spicing them with touches of fantasy, allowing herself some exaggeration and white lies" (p. 177). How does it affect Alma, nearing the end of her life, to be able to control the narrative of her own life? Why do you think she chooses to leave out the stories about Ichimei at first? Why does she eventually decide to tell Seth and Irina the full story?
11. Consider this statement which Ichimei writes in a letter to Alma: "Love and friendship do not age." (p. 176) Is Ichimei right about this? Why or why not? Consider the way that their relationship changes throughout the novel.
Enhance Your Book Club
1. When the Belasco and Fukuda families separate in 1942, Alma and Ichimei plead, "Write to me, write to me." Their letters carry on over nearly seventy years and become some of Alma's most treasured possessions. Take some time with your book club to write a letter to someone important to you. Post it now, or save it to look back on at a later date.
2. Learn more about the Japanese-American internment camps during WWII in one of many available resources, such as the PBS documentary Children of the Camps (pbs.org/childofcamp/), the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles (janm.org/), and the museums or national historic sites at several of the former internment camps, including Topaz, Utah, Manzanar, California, and McGehee, Arizona.
3. Research Vera Neumann, the real-life famous artist who inspired Alma's designs.
4. Connect with the author Isabel Allende online to learn more about her previous books, her charitable foundation, and her speaking engagements on behalf of social and economic justice for women. Learn more at isabelallende.com.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Allende at her best. A beautiful tapestry of interwoven characters that span generations and continents. Perhaps my favorite of all her books. Highly recommend it.
One of the most beautiful and touching books I've read in years.
Allende is a gifted storyteller. Highly recommend this book!
Reviewed by Francesca and posted at Under The Covers Book Blog THE JAPANESE LOVER is a beautiful life story about two women. One at the end of her complicated life, and one at a crossroads in the middle where she has to overcome her past. Alma Belasco, originally from Polland, came to live with her aunt and uncle in the US when she was a little girl. They gave her a lavish life catering to her every whim, raising her in a society where she never has to want for anything. During her childhood, she becomes best friends with a Japanese boy. Although life tears them apart, that friendship marks her life and throughout the years, as their relationship changes, becomes the biggest part of who she is. Friendship turns into love, turns into loss and pain. We meet Alma when she's an old woman living in a retirement home. Her only companions? Her grandson Seth and one of the caretakers at the home, Irina. The second woman we get to meet in this book and whose life becomes forever changed by this story. She's young and down on her luck, having a past that tortures her every day. But it's Alma and her story, and eventually Seth and his love, that make a big difference for Irina. This is a beautifully heartbreaking story about life, love and mistakes. Love had, love lost. Love that can withstand the test of time. Love that can help heal. But also centers around prejudice and how it can break someone and get in the way of happiness. Although this story is a bit understated, and it starts off slower than I would've liked, by the time it gets going you can't help but get lost in these characters and want to know more. I felt like a little kid waiting for grandma to tell the story of her life. Her adventures. The format in which it's told going back and forth between past and present, was perfect to show the reader how they got here. And the ending is bittersweet. This is definitely a book that surprised me by making me shed a tear on more than one occasion because the writing was so subdued, the emotions snuck up on me. As much as I enjoyed this book a lot, I have to admit I couldn't help but compare it to her other work and see it fall short of my expectations. Isabel Allende is legendary in her writing and I can't quite see this as being up there with her classics. However, if you go into it with a clear mind or if this is your first foray into her writing, I believe you won't be disappointed with this story full of depth.
She writes very well. However it just flipped back and forth between story lines and really felt it was about Irena more than Alma. Had trouble holding my attention because it dragged on in spots and halfway through I could pretty much figure out how it would end and honestly couldn't wait to be done with it. It's neither the best nor the worst book I've read, I really expected more of a love story after reading heavier material and after reading the previous reviews was hoping for some much more since the premise seemed encouragin
Great book. Interesting story, well written. Great writing & the story. and
I read this book in one day. I was captured by the love story of Alma and Ichi. Very moving. I have to agree with another reviewer about the character of Irina in the story line. I found her character distracting from the main story of Alma, Ichi and the Balasco family. Isabel Allende's book are wonderful to read.
This was a fabulous and smart read. I highly recommend it. My favorite of Allende's books. Just beautiful and touching.
This is an engrossing story that interweaves the lives of half a dozen very different people. I loved both the characters and the story.
Brought back my love for reading. Love the story and the way it is told.
Such a joy to read. Allende's writing is magic and fantastical, touching and absolutely beautiful.
This is an epic love story, but really it touches on lots of heavy subjects. It starts right before WWII, and ends in the current decade. Many major events between those times are highlighted: Jewish people fleeing their home countries, Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, war, Japanese Americans being in camps, prejudice between different races, homosexuality, AIDS, sex trafficking, and more. All of these things happen in the lives of the main couple or someone close to them. There are several emotional parts. I didn't break down crying, but so many things touched my heart. I definitely recommend it.
Just because Allende wrote it doesn't mean it is good. The stilted dialogue was painful. The story did not just vascillate between past and present, it was simply disorganized. And the love story? I guess it was okay if you think a bunch of adjectives makes a love story. Don't bother with this book.


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We know that sadness signals a perceived loss. Anger signals a violation of our rights. But what do positive emotions signal and what are they for?
The Broaden-and-Build Theory is a relatively recent model within positive psychology, that explains the form and function of positive emotions like joy, interest, contentment, and love.
The author behind it is Barbara Fredrickson, a Kenan Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory.
Psychologists extensively studied emotions but mostly focused on negative emotions. Up until Fredrickson and her studies, we knew very little about the function of positive emotions.
Why Were Positive Emotions Neglected?
Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.
– Roger Ebert
1. They're fewer and it's harder to differentiate between them.
Throughout the many components of the emotion process, the lack of differentiation of positive emotions is evident. Especially when contrasted with negative emotions.
If we take facial expression, for example, negative emotions have very specific configurations that make them easily recognized.
I bet you can easily tell if someone is sad or angry by their face. But you can you tell if someone is either interested or content by their facial expression? Not so easy right?
According to Paul Ekman, one of the leading researchers in emotions, positive emotions lack specific signal value (the way fear signals a perceived threat). But all share the Duchenne smile:
Duchenne smile: a smile with raised lips and contraction of the eye muscles.
Non-Duchenne smile: a smile with no contraction around the eyes.
Positive emotions, contrary to negative ones, do not have distinct autonomic responses.
In fact, many positive emotions are characterized exactly by this lack of autonomic response, except for the ones that evoke laughter and are accompanied by changes in breathing.
The appraisal processes that trigger emotions are also less differentiated for positive emotions than for negative ones.
Leading researchers to believe that, evolutionarily there's a bias towards negative emotions. Because failing to react appropriately to a threat could lead to death, but failure to react to an opportunity is most likely harmless.
There are more negative than positive emotions because there are more different kinds of threats than opportunities.
– Nesse, 1990
2. Problems should be attended first.
People who are suffering should be attended first. Psychology as a field moves towards solving pressing problems that impact people's life and ability to function in adaptive ways.
Negative emotions can lead to serious problems to our society. For example anger and anger management issues can lead to aggression and violence. Anger is also related to heart disease.
Fear and anxiety fuel phobias and other disorders. You get the picture, the list goes on and on.
Positive emotions, however, are associated with fewer problems. Therefore, for a long time, researchers focused mainly on negative emotions.
3. Emotion models are built on prototypes.
Emotions like fear and anger are associated with specific thought-action tendencies, for example, fear is associated with an urge to escape and anger with the tendency to attack (whether or not someone acts out on these tendencies depends on many other factors).
So an important element of this theory is that action tendencies are more than just thoughts. Why? Because the action tendencies and the physiological changes go hand in hand, so they're more like embodied thoughts.
The main function of emotions is an organization aimed at the optimal physiological milieu to support the particular behavior that is called forth.
– Levenson, 1994
Most of the research on emotions was designed to fit this prototypic model. But positive emotions are more diffuse in nature. And fitting them into the action-thought tendencies raises some problems:
- Positive emotions are not linked to threatening situations.
- Maybe consequently, they're not associated with well-defined urges to act in certain ways.
So, What Are Positive Emotions For?
Barbara Fredrickson believes the thought action tendency model is suitable for negative emotions but not for all emotions. She argues that we need different models to understand different emotions and proposes that we ditch 2 assumptions:
1. Emotions are inevitably associated with action tendencies.
2. Emotions must necessarily spark tendencies for physical action.
Instead of action-tendencies, she proposes speaking of momentary thought-action repertoire.
Negative emotions have a survival value. The action-tendencies reflect the narrowing of possible reactions to very specific ones that allow us to act in self-preserving ways.
However, the case for positive emotions is quite different. The scope of possible actions is wider and not well-defined. Positive emotions don't seem to narrow the choices for action.
On the contrary, Fredrickson found that positive emotions broaden the momentary thought-action repertoire and serve as tools to regulate negative emotions.
Fredrickson looked at 4 different positive emotions:
1. Joy – associated with the willingness to engage with the situation at hand, it creates the urge to play and be playful (including social, physical, intellectual and artistic play).
2. Interest – is associated with an urge to investigate, to be involved. to extend and expand the self by taking in new information and experiences.
Openness to new ideas, thoughts, and experiences is what characterizes this broadened mindset. The result of this exploration is increased knowledge that can be drawn upon later on.
3. Contentment – leads people to appreciate and savor their life, their successes and to experience a sense on "oneness" with the world, integrating events and perspectives into their self-concept and world view (de Rivera et al., 1989; Izard, 1977). It's also the emotional experience that follows a state of flow.
4. Love – is not a single emotion and people experience different types of love (passionate, companionate, care-giver, etc.). So love experiences are comprised of different positive emotions, including interest, joy and contentment.
By triggering these emotions of interest, contentment, and joy, love broadens the momentary thought-action repertoire by fueling people to explore, savor and play with their loved ones.
And even though, this seems to have no other aim than enjoyment, the strengthening of social ties and attachments build a social support group than people can count on in times of distress.
Not only do the positive emotions of joy, interest, contentment, and love share the feature of broadening an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire, but they also appear to share the feature of building the individual's personal resources, ranging from physical resources to intellectual resources to social resources.
– Barbara Fredrickson
The Effect of Positive Emotions on Attention
Emotions like fear and anxiety narrow a person's attentional focus (Easterbrook, 1959).
Derryberry and Tucker (1994) propose that positive emotions lead to an expansion of attention.
In studies with manic people, like creative artists (not that all creative artists are manic, no siree!) they realized they tended to use more overinclusive categories.
Lab studies also sustain the idea that normal ranges of positive emotions are related to broadened attentional states.
One of the tasks asked participants to judge which of 2 figures is more similar to a standard one. One of the figures resembles the standard in general, global configuration and the other in detailed elements.
Negative emotional states predict a bias towards the detailed figure.
Whereas, positive states like well-being and optimism predict a bias towards the global figure, which is consistent with the broadened attentional focus.
But note that there is no neutral group to compare with, so further studies are needed. Especially because, previous studies show that normal people, under normal circumstances tend to favor global features, over detailed ones.
The Effect of Positive Emotions on Cognition
One of the pioneers researching positive emotions was Alice Isen. Her work was groundbreaking for 2 reasons:
- She didn't assume positive and negative emotions are opposites and because of it, consistently included neutral groups in her studies.
- She induced positive emotions in a variety of different ways throughout her studies (by giving out candy bags, reading cartoons, watching comedy films and many others). This makes it easier to generalize the findings of the studies.
Her research leads to the idea that positive affect is followed by an "enlarged cognitive context".
In one of the studies, people experiencing positive emotions made more unusual associations to neutral words, compared to people in a neutral emotional state.
Another study showed that people use more inclusive categories when experiencing positive emotions.
Researchers found people in positive emotional states to be more flexible categorizers than those in neutral or negative states. They formed fewer categories when asked to focus on similarities and formed more categories when asked to focus on differences.
These findings led Isen and colleagues to believe that positive emotions allow people to see relatedness and interconnectedness in their thoughts and ideas and to process things in a more integrated and flexible way.
Finally, other studies show that people experiencing positive emotions also perform better on creativity tests.
Positive Emotions Expand The Scope of Action
The studies that show that positive emotions broaden the scope of thinking are taken as indirect proof that they also broaden the scope of action.
Another study that accounts for this hypothesis is Duncker's candle task:
- Participants are given a box of tacks, a candle and a book of matches to attach the candle to the wall, without dripping wax on the table or floor.
- To get to the solution participants have to broaden the perceptions of each object's function.
- The solution is to empty the box, tack it to the wall as a platform for the candle.
Participants experiencing positive emotions solved the problem more frequently than those in the neutral control condition.
Positive Emotions Build Physical Abilities
The argument here is that joy and other high-energy positive emotions create the urge to play, and play builds personal resources.
Rough-and-tumble is a form of play that acts out chasing and fighting scenarios, often with role reversing. This form of play is frequently associated with smiling and laughter, indicating a connection between joy and this type of play.
Ethologists observe this behavior, both in humans and non-human mammals, they believe that this role playing allows for muscle growth and fitness and cardiovascular fitness. It's a good workout basically.
But more than that, they propose that rough-and-tumble play is a way of practicing important physical skills such as hunting, avoiding predators, chasing and fighting.
There's not a lot of empirical evidence for the connection between play and hunting skills, however, the evidence linking this type of play and predator avoidance and fighting is compelling.
A study of elephant seals found that male pups play in a manner resembling the fighting seen in adult males of the species. Whereas, female pups play in a manner resembling the adult fighting seen in adult females.
– Rasa (1971, as cited in Boulton & Smith, 1992).
But let's hear it from Barbara herself, shall we?
Positive Emotions Open our Mind, Barbara Fredrickson
Positive Emotions Build Intellectual and Social Resources
The attachment theory is one of the most established psychology theories. The idea is that the children whose needs for attachment are met, develop a sense of security that allows them to explore the world around them (Bowlby).
The bond between infant and caregiver provides a foundation from which the child can feel secure enough to play and explore the environment around her, this exploration, in turn, results in increased cognitive and intellectual resources.
Children with a secure attachment (whose needs were met) are:
- More persistent
- Enthusiastic
- Effective in problem-solving
- More flexible and resourceful
So that spark of interest is a fragile thing that can dim in children who don't see their innate attachment needs met.
Other studies show that positive emotions build intellectual performance because they facilitate enhanced learning and performance.
In one study, 4-year-old children were asked to recall an emotional or non-emotional experience. The study comprised 3 different conditions: positive, neutral and negative affect. Children in the positive emotion condition performed faster and better than the children in the neutral and negative emotion conditions.
Numerous studies in positive psychology show social relationships contribute the most to well-being and happiness.
Sharing positive emotions is a great way of enjoying the moment but it also allows the development of bonds, alliances and friendships.
These social ties are important resources that can influence how we cope and deal with challenges and times of difficulty.
Research in social psychology also shows that people in positive states are more likely to help others in need and, this gesture, can trigger gratitude in the person receiving the help.
Can Positive Emotions Help Cope With the Consequences of Negative Emotions?
We've seen how positive emotions open our minds and allow us to build important resources that we rely on throughout our life.
But can they undo the effects of negative emotions?
Barbara Fredrickson and Levenson brought participants to an experiment in which they induced negative emotions by having them watch a film that triggered fear and heightened cardiovascular activity.
Then participants were randomly distributed into 1 of 4 conditions and watched different films that elicited:
- Contentment (positive emotion condition)
- Mild amusement (positive emotion condition)
- Sadness (negative emotion condition)
- Neutral (neutral condition)
Participants in the positive emotion conditions (both contentment and mild amusement) showed the fastest recovery from negative emotions. It took them 20 seconds to return to their baseline cardiovascular activity, whereas those in the negative and neutral condition took between 40 to 60 seconds to return to baseline.
Fredrickson calls this the undoing effect of positive emotions.
Positive Emotions Resources
For those of you who want to dig deeper on this topic, I made a list of the best resources on positive emotions.
- Handbook of Positive Emotions, Tugade, Shiota, Kirby
- Positivity, Barbara Fredrickson
- Love 2.0., Barbara Fredrickson
- Buddha's Brain, Rick Hansen
Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300–319.
Fredrickson B.L., Levenson R.W. (1998)Positive emotions speed recovery from the cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. Cognition and Emotion. 12:191–220.
Fredrickson B.L., Mancuso R.A., (1998) Branigan C, Tugade M. The undoing effect of positive emotions. Manuscript in preparation.
Isen A.M. (1987) Positive affect, cognitive processes, and social behavior. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. 20:203–253.
Isen A.M., Daubman K.A., Nowicki G.P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 52:1122–1131
Kahn B.E., Isen A.M. (1993). The influence of positive affect on variety seeking among safe, enjoyable products. Journal of Consumer Research. 20:257–270.
The Positive Effects of Positive Emotions by Jennifer Stellar.
Positive Emotions in the Midst of Stress by Judy Moskowitz.
The Practical Neuroscience of Positive Emotions by Rick Hansen
That's it folks, I hope this was helpful. What was your biggest takeaway from all this? Please leave a comment below, like and share the psychology love.
Big hug,

subset: commoncrawl


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Yellow Sun Wavespell Butterfly of Illumination
by Mariela Maya
The Butterfly of Illumination
Yellow Sun Wavespell
Power of Clarity and Enlightenment
October 15-27, 2016
Yellow Sun is the energy of Light and warmth, reminding us to ignite our inner flame in order to feel empowered and glow. We have 13 days to become aware to whom we have been giving our power away so we can regain our authority and shine in our own light. It is a great time to clarify any misunderstandings we have with others bringing clarity into our relationships and within oneself.
This is the 4rd Wavespell of this Tzolkin cycle of 260 days in its modern interpretation, which started on September 6, 2016 and ends on May 23, 2017. If you are just joining us, you can read about the invitation for this cycle here where you will also find useful documents you can download to get in tune with it daily.
Thank you very much for your beautiful feedback on my new website BridgingWorlds.net and to those that placed orders. We have very few planners and journals left as we just printed a small quantity of each in this first edition so, if you are interested, make sure to order soon as we will not reprint them for this cycle.
Sharing the butterflies for today, you can click on the images to see the video and the enlarged version:
Willow and the Butterfly
Symbio Wildlife Park
During a video shooting at Symbio Wildlife Park in Australia, little Willow was 'photobombed' by a butterfly! One of the park's managers Kevin Fallon said about Willow, who is almost one year old, that "although she's very affectionate, she's a little bit more independent". "She's an absolutely adorable little girl and just loves people." Thanks for sharing the video Jaap and Debbie.
Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed
LEGO Art by Sean Kenney
Beautiful photo taken by Pam Zimmerman during her recent visit to Phoenix Zoo. Artist Sean Kenney is currently touring North America with his Nature Connects exhibition where he shows over 100 sculptures created with LEGO bricks. In his words. "just as LEGO pieces interconnect, everything in nature is interconnected in a delicate balance". The "Monarch on Milkweed" butterfly sculpture contains over 60,000 LEGO pieces with a wingspan of 8-foot/2.44 meters and it took four months of full-time work to design and build it. Your can read more about it and see photos of its creation progress here.
Thanks for continuing sending me material, photos, videos, and any experiences related to butterflies and transformational journeys so I can share them in future messages.
End of Red Castle of Initiations
The Yellow Sun Wavespell is the last one of the Red Castle of New Beginnings (September 6 to October 27, 2016). What were your intentions and main experiences during these 52 days? Which new projects and relationships did you start? This is a good time for reflection before a new Castle starts with the next Wavespell. You can click on the image on the right to open the 260-day matrix for this cycle including the Gregorian Dates.
Happy Shining!
In Lak'esh & Munay,
Mariela Maya
Yellow Electric Star
mariela [at] mayankin [dot] com
+1 (832) 454-3113
In Lak'esh means "I am another yourself!", a Mayan greeting that recognizes the Divine in each living Being. It's a message of Unity that reminds us that, when we give, we are also receiving. In this way, the Mayan honored and respected each other, reinforcing the belief that we are all interconnected: what we do to others and to our environment will also affect ourselves in the end…
Munay means both 'Love' and 'Beauty' in Quechua, the language of the Incas. Munay, translated as 'To love', is one of the three principles of the Andean way.
I invite you to subscribe to the series of messages on Wavespells sent every 13 days. To get in tune with the current cycle, please use the Daily Tzolkin.
CURRENT CYCLE: September 6, 2016 to May 23, 2017 (for useful documents click here)


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Owner operated
Fully insured
Local AZ Floor Cleaning Company
specializing in Residential & Commercial Carpet, Tile, Grout and Upholstery Cleaning.
Call for free estimate (480) 678 - 0890
You'll need to move small items, nic-nacks and breakables off the carpet and off any furniture you would like us to move. Or, you can move out what you want and have us clean the open areas around what is left to get the lowest cost. Also, please vacuum your carpets before we arrive and have tile free of debris as well. All this helps speed up the process and allows us to get started right away so you can go about your day!
It varies between 3 and 8 hours for total drying time. In cold weather turn your heat up and ventilate the house somewhat with exhaust fans and some windows open slightly. You can open the whole house during hot dry weather. Air conditioning helps during humid days. Blow air across the carpet with summer fans and ceiling fans. The ideal inside temperature is 72 or warmer regardless of weather.
Yes you can. We recommend you walk in socks or we can supply some "booties" for you and please be careful not to slip as you walk from the damp carpet onto hard floors like vinyl, wood or tile.
We have great success with most spots. A spot is something foreign on the carpet or upholstery that can be removed. A stain is something we call a spot after we have exhausted all removal possibilities. It's impossible to predict the outcome prior to cleaning so we cannot guarantee total stain removal, it's foolish to do so. Depending on the age of the stain, or if it's been "cleaned" or attempted to be cleaned before can all factor in...one thing is for sure, we'll do our best!!
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For sanitation: A clean carpet makes for a healthy home and office environment.
For maintenance: A clean carpet will last longer than a soiled carpet. Abrasive dry soil that your vacuum cleaner cannot remove will scratch and abrade the yarns. Many new carpet warranties require professional carpet cleaning and even specify the 'hot water extraction system' carpet cleaning services that Stax Steamer uses for the greatest soil removal.
For appearance: Spots and soil buildup is unsightly and embarrassing. Your trained, experienced, owner from Stax Steamer uses the finest products and equipment available for the best spot and soil removal possible. We're the experts! Many carpet manufacturers recommend professional over 'do-it-yourself' cleaning because of the potential problems that can occur from using rental equipment -- such as yellowing, over wetting, fiber tip damage, severe re-soiling and overuse of detergents.
If carpet and upholstery is cleaned before it becomes too unsightly, the cleaning chore will be easier and more successful. Allowing them to become overly soiled will result in irreversible damage. It is a common myth that cleaning them before it is absolutely necessary will cause them to get dirty faster. Your cleaning frequency is dependent on a number of factors including your lifestyle, kids, pets, color choices, housekeeping, and your level of spot cleaning success, to name a few.
Frequently used carpet should be professionally cleaned at least annually - perhaps a little longer interval for infrequently used carpet and even sooner for carpet in homes occupied by respiratory sensitive or allergic persons; or in homes with indoor pets. The following chart from the IICRC (Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification) S100 & S200 Standards and Reference Guide for Professional Carpet Cleaning serves as a guideline for recommending cleaning frequencies for carpet.
© 2015 Stax Steamer


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"These acquisitions expand our presence in Volvo's North American truck distribution system as contemplated by our previously announced framework arrangement with Volvo," said Paul T. Horn, President of RDO Equipment. In addition to the LA locations, RDO has Volvo dealerships in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Fargo and Grand Forks, ND.
RDO Equipment Co. is one of the fastest growing companies engaged in the restructuring and consolidation of the equipment and truck retail industries in the United States.


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Better Collective is looking to hire a talented PHP developer for it's office in Lodz, Poland. Would you like to strengthen your developing skills, working closely with high-end products? Then this is the right role for you.
Better Collective is an international award-winning company working to give punters and players a better and more secure igaming experience. We are producing outstanding sports betting content and igaming products that go far beyond the usual standards.
As a PHP developer, you will join a skilled team of 14-people in Lodz, which are at the moment expanding the circle of programmers. We develop web applications related to sport. We work with the Scrum method, where every programmer has the opportunity to develop independent projects and have a real impact on our unique products.
In-depth professional experience as a PHP developer
Object-oriented programming and design patterns
Strong experience in minimum one of PHP frameworks (we use Laravel and Slim)
Very good knowledge of SQL databases
Linux, at least in terms of webdev
Know how to write clean and refactor the worse code
Test the code using unit tests
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You can boast your own projects
You can solve problems yourself
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You know AWS or other clouds
NoSQL databases
Data queues (RabbitMQ)
HTML, CSS, JavaScript and responsive design
You know Node.js and you're happy to rewrite part of the software
You're interested in programming for mobile
Work in a small team, where everyone takes positions with responsibility
Projects closely related to sport, largely to football
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Close cooperation with teams from Denmark, Greece and Serbia
Private health insurance for you and your family
Trips to conferences in Poland or other countries
Meetings with the team outside the office
Breakfasts, lunches and drinks for free
XBOX right next to your desk
We look forward to hearing from you, we will process your application quickly and give callbacks continuously until we find the perfect candidate.
If you have any questions, you can contact our HR Consultant, Ewelina Grądzka.
Better Collective is an international growth company working to give players a better and more secure iGaming experience. Through our products, we will create a more transparent and honest business. Our ambition is that quality and innovation must also apply to the iGaming industry and we are determined to set new standards and to take the lead in the market. We are a dynamic, energetic and diverse workplace encouraging an open and informal tone, strong unity and high ambitions.
Ewelina Grądzka
Mobile: +48 535006919
ul. Sienkiewicza 72, GF + 1stF 90-318 Lodz


text: Warren D Posted October 2, 2018 Does anyone know anything about the subject truck show? Held at Barnes Airport in Westfield, MA, I don't recall seeing it before, and I know I've never been. It's coming up next Sunday and if it's anything like the Bay State show in Worcester this past Sunday, I'll make a point of adding it to the calendar. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Four Reasons To Schedule A Whole-House Plumbing Inspection Right Now
The best way to save money on home plumbing repairs is by identifying and resolving minor issues before they have the opportunity to spiral out of control. This is the basic idea behind whole-house plumbing inspections. During these visits, your provider will take a close look at every aspect of your plumbing system to spot issues like hidden and slow leaks, excessively high water pressure, and loose connections at the backs of major appliances. If you schedule these services once or twice each year, you can avoid a number of preventable problems like water damage, mold, mildew, and more. Following are four, important reasons to schedule a whole-house plumbing inspection today.
Determine The Age And Projected Lifespan Of Your Current Appliances
If you've recently invested in existing construction and aren't fully sure of the actual age and condition of the plumbing fixtures and appliances that came with it, these visits will allow you to get the information you need. This way, you can start planning for forthcoming replacements and repairs, before your hot water heater or water softening system stops working outright. Local companies like Daniel's Plumbing will even take the time to give you an estimate for any future replacements that you're likely to need.
Get Discounts On Your Home Insurance
Homeowners who are diligent in having professional, preventative maintenance performed often qualify for lower insurance premiums. When services visits like these are properly documented and presented to insurers at the time of binding coverage, they can have a very positive impact on policyholders' risk profiles. Area plumbers can even share strategies for making home plumbing systems more disaster-resistant. At the very least, these efforts will limit your likelihood of having to file a plumbing-related claim, which will eventually help you cut your spending in this area.
Make Sure That Your Emergency Shut-Off Valves Are Working
There's nothing worse than having a major backup or overflow occur, only to discover that an emergency shut-off valve isn't working. These incredibly important fixtures can become rusted or otherwise corroded, or they may even be painted in a fixed position. Having your plumber test these features ahead of an urgent event is therefore vital. Being able to quickly shut off the water supply when your plumbing system is malfunctioning is one of the surest and easiest ways to limit the resulting property damages.
Find The Perfect Plumber For Handling Your Plumbing Emergencies
Plumbing emergencies never occur at a convenient time. More importantly, they don't really give homeowners the best chance to locate and screen reputable plumbing companies. By scheduling a preventative maintenance appointment ahead of any plumbing disaster, you'll be giving yourself plenty of time to identify a plumbing company Austin residents can trust. Best of all, you'll even have the chance to see your chosen plumber in action, before any major repairs are actually required.


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We are capable of designing a variety of Cylindrical Storage tanks with different capacities and shell diameters up to 60 meters. Tank roof designs include: External Floating roof, Self-supported Cone roof, Supported Cone roof, Dome roof, with optional Internal Floating roof.
We are also capable and experienced with designing Spherical Storage tanks with diameters between 12 and 24 meters for Liquefied Gases such as LPG, Propylene, Ammonia, etc. Our Spherical Storage tanks are U or U2 certified, satisfying the requirements from ASME Sect. VIII Div. 1 or Div. 2.
We utilize state-of-the-art software such as TANK, PVElite, STAAD Pro, in analyzing and designing of tank's shell, manhole, structures, etc. Continuing development from the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) documentation such as equipment specification and datasheet, we can develop additional detail design documentation such as:
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Structural stress analysis,
Detail design/Fabrication drawing package,
Detail MTO (including shape steel, steel plate, pipe fittings, bolts & nuts, paiting area)
Inspection, Testing & Construction Procedures/Specifications (Hydrotest, ITP, Painting, Steel Materials..)


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New LIbrary Service
As of Jan. 2012 SST will be offering a music library service.
Whether your project is a film score, TV commericial, b2b video, dance piece, video game or anything in between. We'd love to help. Check it out here and if there's anything you looking, get in contact.
The music on offer is available as is or can be edited to suit your needs


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Combine our team of veteran IBM programmers with their younger .NET and mobile app developer counterparts, and the result can be game changing.
Venerable Workhorse
The IBM i-Series and it's parent – the AS/400 – remain in widespread use today, and for good reason. Their reliability is legendary. They've proven to be virtually impervious to predatory attacks. They host thousands of time-tested business applications.
That said, there are shortcomings. In their day, these machines presented data like every other system – in a tabular, alphanumeric format. As PC client-server systems took over, modernization of these legacy systems' user interface stalled. While connectivity to PCs, and even the Internet, was developed, today's need for dashboards and remote users operating via mobile apps were not even envisioned.
Out to Pasture? Not just yet…
If you're "true-blue," we have a question for you: What if you could keep your box for all of the great qualities it offers, PLUS offer your users a rich, graphical Business Intelligence layer AND a modern, integrated mobile app? Our CAP-View-i and CAP-Connect-i frameworks are making this a reality. Through connected Microsoft servers, we enable dynamic, bi-directional communication that ensures executive and field sales and service teams have secure access to critical corporate data, even when wi-fi and cellular networks are unavailable.
Practicality is our Middle Name
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Here is the crazy truth: I am weirdly optimistic right now. Not just about election things (knock wood), but about LIFE IN GENERAL. I'm digging this sensation, but it is totally surprising to me! On paper, I should either be really depressed or blithely unconcerned (depending on if I'm wearing my WOE! or woah! glasses), but instead I feel sort of blithely concerned. It's not all rose petals and baklava, but it's not hair shirts and tofurkey jerky either. (due respect to tofurkey jerky lovers, but it gives me a terrible rash.)
My Free Will Astrology horoscope this week hit me in just the right spot -- particularly the part about the person I'll be in five years. Normally I think that kind of speculation is not particularly useful, but right now it strikes me as very creative: the birth of something bigger and better than I previously allowed myself to imagine.
"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past," said Thomas Jefferson. It might feel a bit unnatural to live as if that were your motto, Cancerian, but I hope you'll try it for a while. Here's the experiment I propose: Whenever you have a spare moment, visualize a pleasurable and interesting scene you would like to create for yourself in the future. If a fearful image pops into your mind as you do that, imagine yourself rolling that image up into a ball and throwing it into a roaring fire. Meanwhile, any time your attention begins to wander off in the direction of the old days and old ways, pounce on it and redirect it into a vision of a fulfillment to come. Halloween costume suggestion: the person you'll be five years from now.
A note about the invisible ink in the photo: it totally works! I went through a brief glass pen obsession phase and saw the invisible ink at the art supply store... so of course I had to get some because HOW COULD I NOT?! I can't remember if this ink fades again once it cools off. I think it does. I hope it does, because that is, of course, way cooler. I will have to dig out a glass pen and give it a test.


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Handsome, Pleasant Wolves In Sheep's Clothing
I'm sure you can figure it out.
We've had many such visits over the years, from this and similar groups. Personally, I enjoy the dickens out of them. It's fun, and I also believe it serves to sharpen the iron, so to speak.
I've never detected any sort of "canned pitch" opening. In this case, they began speaking of the conditions in America and the like. Presumably because that's what one of their handouts dealt with. They gave them to me immediately and I took them and set them aside. After a couple minutes of their presentation .. they would not sit down .. I inquired as to whether I might as a question. They said certainly, so I asked:
"Am I going to go to heaven when I die?"
They started talking about 144,000 in the Bible, although I never did get that point. I said that number was, indeed, mentioned in Scripture, but it sure didn't say it in that context.
They moved on to talking about Jesus and mentioned how He wasn't God. I asked them to read John 1:1 from their "Bible" and he started referring to some other passage, so I told them their book said "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was a god." If I had it correctly. He showed me his book and that's just what it said.
I reminded them that they had added "a" in referring to Him, so as far as I'm concerned, they didn't really have the Bible. They protested that there had been a lot of translations, etc etc.
I asked them again if they could please address my question about going to heaven, and the possibility of being certain of that. And that's when they decided they had to leave. Hurriedly.
There's no question about John 1:1, by the way. The word "God", used twice in the one verse, is "Theos", both times, and there's absolutely no modifier like "a".
As they were walking out the door, I again asked them if I could know I was going to heaven. One said something about enduring to the end, and I asked if he'd ever read 1 John 5:11-13. Walking down the steps he said "Yes" and the other gent said "We'll see you in Heaven and we can work it out, there", as he was walking down the sidewalk.
I told them "Well .. I'LL be there...."
Nice guys. Out there working for their kingdom work. We should all be so zealous in our faith.
If only they were promoting the Truth.......
Labels: Jehovah's Witness


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In reading this book I was thrown back to my undergraduate years at Bemidji State University in Minnesota singing English medieval carols as part of Paul Brandvik's Madrigal Dinners. Dressed up in fancy hats and pointy shoes, we entertained our middle-class guests with songs that Brandvik had culled mainly from R. V. Williams' The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) and John Stevens' Medieval Carols (1952). The reader aghast at my inauthentic American medieval experience should know that it was an American, and not an Englishman, who first put the medieval English carol on sure scholarly footing. R. L. Greene's unwieldy Princeton dissertation-turned-book, The Early English Carols (1935), was eventually pared down to A Selection of English Carols (1962). The "musical implications" of "Greene's fundamental treatise" (Stevens, Medieval Carols, p. xiii) soon followed thanks mainly to the editorial work of John Stevens, but the problem still remained of how anyone beyond a clutch of Middle English specialists would be able to read lines like "this edi hath on hond y-had that heven hem is heist to hede" (I.54 in this anthology).
The dilemma of how to bring English carols to a lay audience was elegantly solved with Thomas Duncan's Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols, 1400-1530 (2000), itself the companion volume to his Medieval English Lyrics, 1200-1400 (1995). The success of these two books, both published in paperback for Penguin Classics, had to do with their layout: modern English glosses of select words and phrases alongside the original texts. The present volume represents a publisher's opportunity, as D. S. Brewer has conflated the two Penguin volumes into a single affordable tome, leaving the original Penguin contents virtually unchanged, pace the introductory claim that this is a "revised edition" (xiv). The preface and introductory material of the 1995 Medieval English Lyrics, 1200-1400 are on pp. ix-xiv, 1-15 and 40-51 of the present volume; all 132 poems from the 1995 volume are here placed on pp. 53-185 and their commentary on pp. 312-373. In short, the 1995 Medieval English Lyrics, 1200-1400 becomes Part I of the present volume. Part II similarly reshuffles the contents of the 2000 Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols, 1400-1530: the earlier Penguin introduction here becomes pp. 15-40; all 150 poems from the 2000 book are here on pp. 187-311, and their commentary on p. 373-451. The reason for reproducing the two Penguin books' contents unchanged is given at the bottom of p. xiv: "in order to preserve a system of reference…compatible with the earlier volumes already widely quoted in scholarly literature" (xiv). Regardless, the resulting conflation is confusing. Except for a brief warning on p. ix that Parts I and II represent two different eras--namely, 1200-1400 and 1400-1530--nothing on the table of contents (vii) or on the two parts' title pages (53 and 187) explains why these "lyrics and carols" are divided up into two parts (one lyrics, the other lyrics and carols), nor why these two parts are divided into slightly dissimilar section types: love lyrics, penitential and moral lyrics, devotional lyrics and miscellaneous lyrics in Part I; courtly lyrics, devotional and doctrinal lyrics, moral and penitential lyrics, and popular and miscellaneous lyrics in Part II. All of this follows the two earlier Penguin volumes, but makes less sense when the two are uncomfortably squeezed together into a single volume.
Who is the intended reader of this book? This is not clear. At times s/he seems to be one of the erudite contributors to the aforementioned "scholarly literature" (xiv); Duncan refers at one point to "readers familiar with Middle English" (45). Certain technical labels--the Old French chanson d'aventure, the Old Occitan chanson d'amour and the Middle English "high style" (3-5 et passim)--are not explained, implying that the learned reader already knows them (although the first two are not common in the scholarly literature on Old French and Old Occitan). Elsewhere the reader is understood to be "a non-specialist" (48) who in her leisure time will peruse "these texts in a readily readable form" (ix). Indeed, Duncan's intentionally "eclectic" (x) editorial approach is decidedly low-brow. He freely picks and chooses different manuscript readings and regularly alters them without indication (52). In the end, the book's main goal seems to be for a non-specialist to get a taste of Middle English poetry.
"To enjoy these poems to the full," Duncan advises, "modern readers must, at the very least, be able to read them with a confident sense of movement of the verse" (40). And so I set out to do one afternoon, with a china cup of steeped tea at my side. But by the time I had ploughed through the sections on "lyric stanza and metre" (40-45), "guidance to metrical reading" (45), "language and texts" (47-49), "pronunciation guide" (50-51) and "the syllabic analysis of Middle English verse" (454-456), and had started to worry about such things as "synizesis" (455) and the "-est" endings of the past tense, my tea had gone very cold. Besides, my guide seemed pessimistic at my chances of correctly declaiming Middle English verse. After a survey of the historical evidence--or lack of it--Duncan notes that "it will have become apparent why Middle English scansion is so problematic" (43). The surviving music for some of these poems might have offered some help to my musicological self, as Duncan, himself an organist and orchestral conductor, initially suggests (41). But his appendix on music only reveals more "notoriously problematic" issues of rhythmic interpretation (452). Besides, Medieval English Lyrics and Carols contains not a note of music, and neither edition nor commentary clearly indicates where musical editions of individual lyrics and carols can be located.
Technicalities aside, Medieval English Lyrics and Carols makes accessible to the lay reader fully two hundred and eighty-two Middle English lyrics and carols, among them some real gems. The poetry ranges from the ribald (e.g., II.115) to what Duncan calls the high or aureate style (e.g., I.54). With a contagious enthusiasm, Duncan highlights some noteworthy works in his introduction, including Chaucer's Petrarchan sonnet (I.31), the poignant Swetë Jhesu, king of blisse (I.67), the famous Cuckoo Song (I.110), the subtle Man in the moone (I.114), Charles of Orléans' My gostly fadir (II.7), William Dunbar's Sweit rois of vertew (II.29), the carol Ther is no rose of swych vertù (II.46), Christ's complaint Wofully araide (II.71), Dunbar's resurrection hymn (II.77), Farewell, this world! (II.102), and the pithy Westron wynde (II.105).
I confess that in the end Duncan's method of mixing learned and lay approaches worked for me. Rereading these lyrics and carols, I fell in love with this poetry again as I began remembering the joy of singing English carols under Paul Brandvik's direction during my medieval training at an American state university; the boar's head carol (II.131) sung at banquet or This endrys nyght (II.66) performed to a hushed audience after the meal. These were special moments, but Brandvik knew his Lutheran Minnesotan audience well enough to always end the Madrigal Dinners with a crowd pleaser: the early nineteenth-century carol "Silent Night." It never failed to prompt a tear or two. At one point, in Medieval English Lyrics and Carols, Duncan nostalgically discusses Benjamin Britten's setting of Ther is no rose of swych vertù, a setting in which, he says, "the words Alleluya and Res miranda are alike sung quietly, as with awe, on one repeated low note" (23). A two-page digression on Britten's Ceremony of Carols may seem inappropriate in an academic edition of medieval poetry. But it just goes to show that non-academic interpretations of medieval song--which is to say, accessible and enjoyable ones--are often those that create the most lasting impressions.


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14 Aug 2018 08:25
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Inventions! (I should note that these are still in the theoretical stage because I just thought of it today and COME ON - like Ernest and Julio Gallo, I can make no wine before its time.)
Invention 1: pneumatic bottle/can return. A mundane household task that fills me with loathing and despair is returning cans and bottles for deposit. I hate it so. As I was brushing my teeth this morning (and discovered a diet coke can on the shelf) I thought how nice it would be if there was a hole in the wall somewhere that led to a discreet series of pneumatic tubes that led to a can payment center. I would put the can in, it would be whisked away by SCIENCE and then a nickel would appear as if by magic (but actually by science) in a coin receptacle nearby. I would even accept receiving a quarter for every five cans returned, or maybe they could just automatically be applied to my bank account. WHY HAS NO ONE DONE THIS?! What better way to grow the economy than with pneumatic tube infrastructure? I'm writing my congressman.
Invention 2: this is not really an invention because they already exist in the world, but: Pneumatic desk so I can stand up while I do my computer work! (I am enchanted by pneumatics today! It's like being blinded by science, but for people who don't necessarily have a sense for how these things actually work.) We have ergonomic adjustable desks at work, but they are ugly (and at work, and we've already established that I'm not there today). Then I thought, maybe I should just put my desk on some kind of PULLEY SYSTEM with ropes and a special desk heaving chanty. It would be like raising a sail on a boat, apart from how it's nothing like that at all! Anyway - this one I managed to solve. I'm currently typing this while standing in front of my dresser! If I put my laptop on a dictionary, it's at a lovely ergonomic height. Writing while standing (or at least while not sitting all the time) is my experiment for the day. Take that, Butt In Chair people. I'm going Feet On Floor.