So I'm finding out how difficult it can be to maintain a blog on a daily basis when one is traveling and where one is staying has no wifi.  I finally had my Verizon Mifi fedexed to me and even that has been a challenge in my parents condo where the walls are constructed with approximately three feet of solid concrete.  I added an app on my iPhone called blogpress anticipating this challenge - before I left Albany.  Using it last night took quite a while and the learning curve isn't over.  LOL.

So if you're wondering how yesterday's blog could be a blog when it's simply a title, know that the rest of the data, including a lovely photo of the title star, the Petoskey Stone is looking lovely in my phone.  The stone has quite a history, but I'll save that story for the time I can actually get the photo onto this site.  hehehe.

Petoskey Stone

If you're tracking any of the things I have to say, you know by now I have a high value of humanity - human potential.  I agree with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his opinion that education and science are the keys to moving us, as humans, to a point of evolution where we no longer violate others - where we are driven by love not fear.  You also know my high opinion of my own mentor in this arena, Keith Raniere.  One of the best moments of my life was when these two leaders, who I hold in such esteem - for the nobility of their activities, their representation of the best of what it is to be human - actually met!  There are a number of things to report on here, but I'm going to start with what His Holiness had to say about my friend, Keith Raniere.  He even accepted the offer to have it be at the introduction of Keith's second book, co-written with Ivy Nevares.  Please visit this new site to hear what the Dalai Lama and others, like Sir Richard Branson, have to say.

Quotes on Science

A dear friend of mine, Brandon Porter, MD, PhD - recently wrote a letter to a fellow scientist, Dr. Dyson, and included these quotes at the end, marking points made in his letter.  I loved them and wanted to share.

Here are the quotes:

“We must regard science, then, from three points of view. First, it is the free activity of man's divine faculties of reason and imagination. Secondly, it is the answer of the few to the demands of the many for wealth, comfort and victory, gifts which it will grant only in exchange for peace, security and stagnation. Finally it is man's gradual conquest, first of space and time, then of matter as such, then of his own body and those of other living beings, and finally the subjugation of the dark and evil elements in his own soul.” - J. B. S. Haldane, "Daedalus, or Science and the Future"

Chapter 24, “The World, The Flesh, and The Devil.” Desmond Bernal’s first book.

“To defeat the Devil, we shall first reorganize society along scientific lines, and later learn to exercise conscious intellectual control over our moods and emotional drives, intervening directly in the affective functions of our brains with technical means yet to be discovered.”

I've started to write something four times and I'm abandoning the effort and handing it to someone else.  Today has been quite an interesting ride to say the least.  I'm looking forward to going to see my family in Florida tomorrow.  With my parents being 83 and 84 years old, it's always a joy just to have the opportunity to see them one more time...

So pearls of wisdom from the Mother Teresa tonight:

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

The Animal Rescue Site

Please consider clicking every day (you can receive a reminder email from them) to help feed animals in need.  It only takes a few seconds, and it's free.  I've been doing it for years, since my good friend and fellow animal lover, Crystal, sent me an email about it.   While I'm not, in most cases, an advocate of supporting "causes" that are really effects, with either time or money - I do make exceptions.  I'm as mindful as possible with these decisions and sometimes even reverse them.  Good intent doesn't change the effects of my decisions to actualize my vision of a world of ethical, humanitarian people.  Currently I support this site and PCRM, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.  I also rescued two dogs via Petfinder.com.  More on these things in future posts.  ;)

The advertising sponsors on the front page of The Animal Rescue Site donate the monies for  bowls of food based on number of hits on the site's "click" button, and purchases from the site's merchandise offerings.

I'm so glad someone named Barbara said this:

Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.  

Barbara Tober