traveling

I not only sat with a communications aide for Senator Murray whose parents were 60's baby boomers, but also someone whose wife was a special education teacher at West High School, and a teacher at Sand Lake who taught health and whose husband had his own business advocating for children's health. The hotel was so close to the airport, and my roommate was in her room. Today, felt awake, and went to part of American Council of the Blind Board meeting. That was great. Serita and I spoke again, and she is awesome, and she is impressed with my intelligence, skills, drive, commitment, memory, listening skills, and analytical skills. She said I was a Jewish Whitney who tried to help and enable others. Koraling Lynne

the bitter and the sweet

Okay, maybe I can post now. I could not a few days ago. This title refers to the Tuesday I was trying to write this, and maybe it will be rendered public now. I am in Washington D.C. for a legislative seminar. Tuesday, I was just about ready to get on to the paratransit (door to door or curb to curb service) and I checked e-mail one more time, and learned that Frances Gertrude Goldberg Koral died at about 85 on Sunday. I was devastated, cried and phoned dad right away. My first cousin's wife was so warm, inviting, engaging, real, tender, welcoming, accepting, interested , loved me, and was involved with Civil Rights, never ignored me. I cried on the bus, at physical therapy, and later in the peer counseling meeting. I wrote ten cultural competency items, and I was walking to the bathroom and Victoria and I were going back to my cubicle and ran into Diane DiSanto and both of us said: "What are you doing here?" She was with Marcia Devoe. PayPal also phoned me to say the account had been resolved with BITS. Please, God, I hope this will post. Koraling Lynne

Movies

Two weeks ago, we saw a movie called "A Dangerous Method" about Freud and Jung. It was sad, because at the end they showed a woman who was shot in Russia with her two daughters in Russia because she was Jewish. She was one of Jung's mistresses. I did not realize that Jung was alive until 1961. He believed in dreams, which I knew, but also paranormal experiences and actually had a dream about World War I, and this was in 1912. Freud died in 1939. They seemed to justify their sexual liaisons and urges. Quite an interesting movie. Another movie I saw a while ago The Descendants had great Hawaiian music, and had a bit of "Through the Wormhole" or "Ancient Aliens" which was interesting. We never got to see J. Edgar Hoover. I did see "I am" a great documentary which had me crying and thinking wide-eyed about how the heart cells are more important than the brain for discerning things. We must open our minds to new ways of thinking and feeling, instead of being deterministic. That is why chaos theory is so interesting. You can read Wheatley about chaos theory, which I read about in Public Administration courses. What people are discovering now is so interesting. Koraling Lynne

Coincidences?

Annonymous, there is nothing wrong with getting an unexpected ride at all. No, it is not a new dog, but a dog that is very protective. We don't have a collar that is good for stopping some of her behavior, but she can be very loving. People can be small-minded, and disappointing. I try to look for the good in people, the worth of people, but when they are upsetting and cause me grief, what can one do? I think that this week has been a little heavy. However, there is good stuff also, and I am washing all the clothes for leaving for a trip to Virginia and Florida. A change in environment might help. I hope so. I need a new perspective.

No Coincidences

I had waited for a taxicab for more than an hour, when my friend Ann appeared. She was with her friend, and she took me home after afew side trips. She was picking something up from the downstairs of Advanced Physical Therapy were other offices are. She drove me home. We heard about a dog collar from the veterinarian office, and it was a day of reflection and a song about forgiveness was playing on the smooth jazz station as I was thinking with sadness about all the things that bother me about people that I'd seen on the e-mail lists and with the condo situation. It was like being racially isolated in the 1960's and yes, part of it was the dog, and much of it is if people do not understand something, they fear it. They don't want to admit they don't understand the anomaly or difference, so they fear it. That is true of disability, alternative health, (including homeopathy), politics, sexual preference, spirituality and other things such as even computers and smart phones and other modern ideas. Koraling Lynne

lessons

When a distressing event happens, I askk what lesson I can learn from the experience? Experiences show us things, so it's a good thing. It may not seem so at the time, but it may pay off in the end. what is the lesson in all this and what can I learn to make others’ lives better? People who prey on disabled folks, because we are different are just really sad specimens of humanity or society. I have had so much trauma and so have others who are in under-represented groups. People who are abusive or traumatizing others have usually been traumatized themselves. I want to find solutions. I need to go to bed soon, since tomorrow I go to the volunteer position. Koraling Lynne

friends

My homeopathic practitioner sent agreat newsletter on Friday. I had not received the first one, but maybeI will. It spoke about meditation, which was great. I sent it to some people. I really was impressed with what was written there. A week ago yesterday, my friend Reeni came by from a celebration of the Orthodox Rabbi's daughter's bat mitzvah (which occurs when a girl is 12 and boy is 13, although my son had his bar mitzvah on his sixteenth birthday, which fell on a Saturday) and it means either daughter or son of the "good deeds" (mitzvah) or commandments. The daughter's project was to make challahs (braided bread) for many families and deliver them, and Reeni was close by so she brought some for me and then Lydia came at our appointed time. That was very nice. Well, time to bed. Koraling Lynne

Appointments

It seemed like longer ago than that, but indeed I scheduled appointments or tried to schedule appointments last Monday with our Alaska delegation. The next day the other blindness group, seeming more like a lock-step religion and people adhere to their principles were meeting in Washington D.C. as Congressman Don Young's office mentioned Koraling Lynne

websites

A couple of weeks ago, I phoned our U.S. delegation to check on appointments. Two of them--Mark Begich, and Don Young had "request a meeting" in places that were not obvious or right on top. The staff sent me links right away, though Don YOung said they had no time on the 24 or the 27 of February. They also don't have any time on the 28. Begich has not gotten back to me yet. Lisa Murkowski gave me an appointment time when I spoke to a real person. Her staff member was projud that they had the best website either of the legislature or some accolades they had received. Theirs had a captcha that did not have an audio captcha for blind people. I did point this out to them. I also have the original roommate for the trip. Koraling Lynne

working with people

Between the blind people who are rigid, and people in my life who are rigid, I barely know what to do. I get that way out of just acquiescing sometimes, or freeze or flight, and I have been better with people when they say something and try to read underneath their words. I did that the other day when my husband said that some people we know were feigning illness, and I said they had chronic problems, and then understood taht when people focus on them, that is part of their identity, and that is what they see. However, I still get defensive sometimes. Tonight, I told a friend taht we get disappointed and we want appreciation, and we have to appreciate ourselves before we can expect it from others. People who do not appreciate themselves cannot appreciate others, or treat others well. It's a struggle to know that I need people and not to be bitter. We are social, and we need people as Barbra Streisand said in her song "People." Koraling Lynne

the movie "I am"

What an amazing movie. I heard about it quite a few months ago on Tom Hartmann, and then on the Hawaii expedition last week the leader recommended it for us and played it for the 24 attendees. I cried and eyes widened about what can we do about our world to change it, and what's wrong with it? Loneliness, disconnectedness, greed, all "mental illness" sort of. Very interesting. It was so hopeful, and we discussed many aspects of it yesterday during the Reflections Skype call for Higher Balance. I can't seem to find time to do everything, and when I installed a program to listen to the movie, a few hours later, It totally messed up my computer. So for two days, I could not read e-mail, check out the exercises for Physical Therapy, or navigate the web very well. So, today, I remembered a tip from my friend Steve who gave me a tip for system restore and it worked! The mp3's played, and JAWS worked when we restored it to Friday. I needed Devin at the office my husband is Executive Director works to know what the screen said, because Narrator did not work very well. Anyway, it's not perfect, and there are still problems but at least I can still manage with it. Koraling Lynne

Weird winter?

Mmore cold than usual, more snow, and all sorts of strange interesting weather. I tried to do my exercises. I spoke to a friend who moved around early winter or fall to Scotsdale, Arizona. She says there are more healers, and she mentioned Bruce Lipton who wrote the book "Biology of Belief." More people are on paratransit, and Sunday morning, I could not even schedule a ride or I could not schedule one for Sunday and I was told that people with disabilities do have priority funding and scheduling. Vilma spoke about empty buses, and a bus leaving her with all her groceries. Many people get paid one a month, and go to the store when they have the money. These are issues we have battled for years. This winter people have been bumped from ReadyRides because of cuts to MedicAid. This is how systems work. Each system acts on the other, and puts stress on the other. How sad. There are extenuating circumstances, but there are also possible funding constraints with exceeding capacity. My husband said I am a good writer, and I love to write about various issues, even though they may be controversial.

The AMTRAK Lady

When I was reserving a seat on the Silver Meteor, and I liked the time and the name of the train, it just resonated with me, a very nice reservationist was speaking about people who act and don't think, If it doesn't bother them, they don't think about anybody else. People who shoot guns on New Year's Eve in New YOrk, especially, don't think about the bullets and they have to go somewhere, and I agreed. I have the plane tickets also. I thought I had a roommate, but since she has to have surgery, she cannot tell me for sure. Actually, the roommate taht I thought could not make it did let me know last week that she would be available and her surgery went well. Koraling Lynne

February flies by

One of our members won 47 thousand dollars as a settlement with the Anchorage School District after many years. I went to one summation with the Alaska Human Rights Commission December 8, 2009 and some meeting about it in June 2011, I believe. I lost respect for the Disctrict after listening to Brad Owens, who I knew from disability work I think he had worked with Access Alaska at one time, and the attitudes that were rampant in the summary in December of 2009. I was really gratified for Vilma Anderson, who is blind, Latin American, a woman and just redeemed her senior status. She siad that what she did will help future blind people. This is what I have said and what my husband has said.