h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi
I just popped in to say hello to an American , read your entry and want to say getting older need not be traumatic, no matter what happens to your body you can stay young in your head. Honest! I am 70, two years ago I broke my back on a trampoline showing my grandson aged 4 how to do a somersault. I was told I might not walk again by the doctors but I decidedthat would not do for me. After a long time on my back I took a few steps. now I can walk fairly well.
Our minds are very powerful and getting our heads into a good space is 90% of the battle. I wish you well and I am sure that you have a long healthy life ahead of you. My wife is 70 also, but when I look at her I only see the 20 year old girl I married
Take care
Kif

Thanks bunches!
Sorry to hear about your back, though. Are you feeling/doing better now? As you said, it's all in your head, and you are obviously chipper, since you're trying to encourage ME!
So I'm an American, but my entertainment education has always included, if not centered on British humor. When I lived in New Hampshire, there were people there who had never heard of Doctor Who or Monty Python, and barely realized that the Beatles were not American. Of course, to be fair, some of them didn't know who Mark Twain was either!
Any questions about America you might have for me? I'll do my best. I know most people on this site are from England. Are you, as well? Where, and have you ever visited other countries?

Hi Cali,
it is great to hear from you. I am not English! I am British but my nationality is Cornish!!. We are a conquered nation, the English took away our independence about five hundred years ago and I still hold a grudge. I am joking of course, although we Cornish like the Welsh and the Scots do consider ourselves other than English. If you know the U.K.you will know Cornwall is at the very bottom of the map, andI live at the very bottom of Cornwall near Lands End.
I was in the Royal Navy as a young man and travelled a bit but I haven't left the U.K. for nearly fifty years, and I really have no wish to. my sons travelled quite a bit but neither of them got to the U.S.
If I could be anywhere other than here I think it would be in California as you seem to have such wonderful weather.
I still have considerable pain from my back if I over do it. I walk fairly well but not too far. I no longer use a walking stick but sometimes feel I should.
I have just started a university degree course which will take about ten years of home study to complete, how's that for optimism?
I read somewhere that ninety five % of Americans have never left The States, do you think that is true?
before I retired I practised as a person centred therapist using the Carl Rogers method. He was a great American therapist, perhaps you have heard of him?
It was great to have a reply from you, and I will always reply if you care to send a message
kif

Greetings!
My apologies, I did not mean to insult your heritage. I understand, more than others my age or in this country, about conquered nations. I myself am commonly referred to as a "mutt", because I am several different nationalities, due to, as you said, loss of independance of my forefathers, or more acurately, my foremothers!
I am, in no particular order of percentage amounts, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, Dutch, Swedish, Czech, Jewish, Russian, Black, Mexican, Iriquois and Mohican. I don't know that I can claim Cornish heritage as well, but I wouldn't be surprised.
I too would like to travel to California. I was born and raised there, but now live in New Mexico, which is IN the United States, despite half the country's opinion! I would not be at all surprised to learn that 95% of Americans have never left the country, although that number does seem a little high. My family moved all over the country, but only left once, to Canada. My own father grew up in Italy and Okinawa, Japan due to his own father's military career.
I would love to travel the world to see the beauty I know God gave us, but which we pave over so often. The most beautiful scenes I have ever seen were the Pacific Ocean and the Redwood Forest, both in California. But I would love to visit the Emerald Isle, and your own shores as well. Scotland holds more appeal to me than England, but I would love to see everything, everywhere. I could list a dozen countries I would love to see! Someday, I will. It just may not be in this lifetime.
I think it is the most wonderful, inspiring thing I have heard in months that you are taking a university degree! I just finished reading an article about education/learning, and how age makes no difference, that continuing to learn actually keeps age at bay!
I have never heard of Carl Rogers. Perhaps you should write a Guide Entry about him, and educate us green, wet behind the ears, young pups.
I too will always reply to any message sent to me. It is one of my most annoying habits. Some say I just want to have the last word. I think that is only slightly true!
Please write back, as I am always happy to connect with anyone-especially when they are so interesting.

Hey Cali
what a wonderful blood mix you have running through your veins, a heritage to be really proud of. I have a Welsh grandmother and I am proud to say I have a cousin who is half Jamaican and half English and he is so handsome I almost envy him. I wasn't insulted when you asked if I was English. And the 'conquered nation' thing is a kind of joke, however we do have our own flag, a white cross on a black background, and the Cornish language is still spoken by a few people but it is not like Welsh which is widely spoken in Wales. Cornish, Welsh and Breton are all similar languages and speakers in each language can understand the other.
Cornwall has the most wonderful scenery. We have the longest coast line in Britain. There are amazing beaches, high cliffs rolling hills and moorlands.
The village I live in is on the coast, and seven miles from the nearest town and the road from town to here is across moorlands which are ablaze with colour most of the year. Heather gorse and bluebells at different times of the year. I never cease to be amazed at God's gift of nature which it seems most of the human race seems determined to obliterate.
I am not sure about writing a guide entry. The standard of writing in them is extremely high also I may not have enough to say about Carl Rodgers to make it interesting.
I still watch Monty Python as it is on cable over here. I suppose I have seen each episode half a dozen times but it still cracks me up every time I watch it. I have to say one of my other favourite t.v. programmes is 'Friends' which is so funny in a very different way. I think the women in it are real'babes' and Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe is so like many of the women who have come into Cornwall in the last few years seeking alternative life styles and don't get it quite right!
We have quite an extraordinary mix of people here. Cornwall still holds an ancient air of mystery. It is a very spiritual place with many ancient pagan sites of worship as well as any number of different Christian sects. It is also a place that attracts artists because of its' wonderful light. Painters poets and writers come here many to stay. Dylan Thomas and Caitlin spent many years here. A.L.Rowse,Cornish born and bred wrote many of his works here when he wasn't travelling the world.
I have just realised how much I have been banging on I do tend to get carried away
I have been very fortunate in life to have met my soul mate, we have faced some enourmous travail in life, most of all the loss of our eldest son, but you know life is a wonderful gift and we should always try to get the best out of each day that we can.
Oh God now I am getting preachy. if you have read this far you deserve a medal
Take care
Kif

How are you doing?
I read your introduction on your personal space. Looks as if we have a few worries in common. Well, I don’t want to start a competition of who’s better off, though could be fun. No, really, I just wanted to say hello to you. Would be nice to have a chitchat with someone who has realized that there’re more serious problems out there than having a boyfriend who is too fond of watching soccer (well, in the US rather football, baseball or basketball), or having not the most beautiful hair in the office, or having missed an episode of “The Bold and the Beautiful”.

Did I get it right that you now live in California again? I’d like to live in California or Florida, but that’s a dream that will be hard to realize. Well, Hawaii is also on my list, but that’s even more unrealistic than my other destinations.

Would be nice to hear from you! All the best!

Katkodl

sorry!!!
instead of leaving a message I replied to a thread that’s not my business at all! sorry!!!

katkodl

Hello Kat,
you have suddenly appeared on my home page, but please don't apologise because I have had a peek at your journal and enjoyed it very much. One of the great things about hooto is you meet so many different people. Thanks for popping by and call in any time

Kif

Hello Kif
Sorry it's been so long. If you want the whole sad-sob story, I wrote a journal entry (finally) about it, but I won't bore you with the story here. After hearing your description of Cornwall, I have officially added it to my list of destinations that I WILL someday visit. I may be old and gray, but my heart will rejoice and renew itself as I breathe in the ocean air and soak up the green with my very soul.
Oddly enough, New Mexico is also considered an artist's retreat. I think its because there is nothing else to do here but pay attention to your own personal muse. There are no distractions.
The Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi Indians have been here long before any white men, and there pueblos and way of life still exists, though more and more in tandem with modern conveniences. Santa Fe, New Mexico is the oldest city in the country, but as the U.S. is a fairly young country, it is still only around 400 years old. That is young compared to cities like London, Athens, and Rome.
I will say this for the desert: the light is extraordinary. I spent four years as a professional portrait photographer, traveling the state, and steeping myself in the beauty of the desert air. It is so crystalline, nothing can compare with it, except, I imagine, an artic landscape. Because there is so little vegetation, the amount of dust raised into the atmosphere makes the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen, even on movies etc.
As far as people go, New Mexico is stilted, and believe me, that's the most polite word I can use! There are, of course, a lot of white people, plus Native American Indians- those I mentioned above+ other tribes- but the majority of the populace is Mexican or of Hispanic descent. If you don't speak Spanish, you won't be able to communicate with a good half of the population. It can be very frustrating.
I don't know if you're familiar with either Georgia O'Keefe or Ansel Adams, but both of them spent a lot of time in New Mexico, drawing inspiration from the surroundings. One of my favorite writers, Julia Cameron, spends time in Taos, NM to write some of the best inspirational books on how to free your inner creativity that I've ever read.
I don't deny that NM is beautiful, but it is not my home. I miss the green trees, the fog, the grass, the ocean, and the blue sky that doesn't make your eyes hurt to look at it. It is so bright here that sunglasses are not an option: they are a necessity.
I am sorry to hear of your son's death. It is a pain no parent should ever have to suffer. My condolences to you, and your soulmate.
Well, I am trying to write to everyone a little today, to make up for being out of reach for so long, and I have bent your ear enough for one day!
Hope to hear from you soon, and hope to be able and willing(if you read my journal entry, you'll see why I say willing- its not you) to respond just as soon. KIT
Cali-Gal

Hey Kif, just trying to get this thread back on your page. Wrote to you a few days ago.
Cali

Hello Cali
I thought I had lost you I am so pleased you are back. I have read your journal and see that it has not been easy for you. However you seem to be in a good space now.
I can understand you being dissatisfied with constant sunshine. One of the best things about Britain is it's constantly changing weather. As well as keeping us on our toes and prepared for anything it also gives us something to talk about with anyone we meet so starting a conversation with an interesting looking stranger is easy!
I haven't heard of Georgia O'Keefe or Ansell Adams I'm afraid. Are they painters or writers maybe. I guess I will look them up on the net sometime and see.
If you ever get to Cornwall you will discover a place of great spirituality. some of our ancient sites, even those of pre Christian times have such an atmosphere of peace and love about them it is almost tangible, if there is such a thing as magic it is here in this ancient land.
I think I told you I live at the far end of Cornwall where there are many ancient sites, we have standing stones , fougous, wells as old as time itself where the waters are supposed to have curative qualities.
Thank you for your kind words about our Lost Boy. It is a terrible thing but we both know how fortunate we were to have been blessed with him for the years we had. There are many people who have much worse tragedies in their lives to live with.
We have been reading about the terrible toll the hurricane has taken in Florida and I wondered if any of it had touched New Mexico.
We have not been having good weather lately and a Cornish village further up the coast was practically destroyed by a flash flood, the water actually tore down peoples homes, by some miracle no lives were lost and there is a huge clearing up operation underway. The damage has been estimate at 30 million pounds. I think that is about fifty million dollars. Quite a lot of money for a small Cornish village.
If you have read my journal you will see I thought I had lost this thread I have written down your number now so hopefully it will not happen again. I too take photographs but I am an unskilled amateur. I am now trying to capture some of my favourite places to put on the P.C. in case the time comes when I am too disabled to get out to see them. There's pessimism for you!

from Kif

Hello Kif! Good to hear from you again.
Was reading a little of your journal, and was shocked to see that you were so close to being in danger of hurricanes/flooding. My prayers go out to the town you told me about, the one that had no damage. As you said though, property can be replaced, as expensive as it is, but human life cannot, so thank goodness none was lost. Here in New Mexico, we have a monsoon season- it is almost the only moisture we get all year, and because it is a desert, it does tend to run right off, taking the topsoil with it. Too, we have arroyos, which are naturally forming canals in the desert, where all the water rushes to, and then thru so fast that they are considered deadly, even when the sun is shining. We've already had two deaths here this summer(when the monsoon season is)because of the arroyos. One little boy, and the man who attempted to rescue him by jumping in after him. They say that if you see someone in an arroyo, the last thing you should do is jump in after them. That is why. The rescuer, sadly, is often swept away in the same raging torrent that caught the original victim unawares- too often in the middle of a sunny day.
Georgia O'Keefe was a painter who painted close ups of flowers. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding out about her. I'm not a fan of hers, but she is quite popular.
Ansel Adams was a photographer- one of the first, and still the most famous American photographer. He has some of the most beautiful nature photography I've ever seen, and I admire his work greatly. He did a lot of photos of Yellowstone National Park, and they still make calendars of his work every year. Most, if not all, of his work is black and white. I don't call myself a fan of his, but then I don't consider myself a "fan" of anyone or anything, fan being short for fanatic. But I do love his work. I'm nowhere near as good as he is, but I like my stuff too!Some day when I get a scanner, I will try to share some with you.
One of the reasons I don't like constant sunshine is that I didn't grow up in it. I grew up in lovely fog, and rain, and the smell of the ocean on the wind. Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved walking in the rain, the smell of the wind, the shivery feel of fog in the morning. Now, I am without all these, and I feel homesick just thinking about it.
I just saw a National Geographic special a week ago about the importance of Stonehenge to ancient people, how becoming farmers and living by the sun replaced being hunters and living by the moon's cycles. Stonehenge charts both sun and moon cycles, and I found the solstice and lunastice(sp?) information quite fascintating. You know the sun has a (solar) year cycle, with the summer solstice and the winter solstice marking the days when the sun "stands still"-solstice in Latin means "sun stands still". These solstices mark when the longest day and the shortest day of the solar year are. The lunar cycle is not one year long. The lunastice takes 18.6 YEARS! to complete. And the people who built Stonehenge knew this, and used the stones to show the peoples that it was okay to transfer their worship from the moon to the sun. Sorry if that was a bit boring- you probably already knew all of that, since you live in the same area.
The reason I mention that is that I would love to visit there, but I'm afraid I would never want to leave!
A few years ago, I got to drive by Shiprock- a natural rock formation that looks like a castle, in the middle of the desert, near the Arizona/New Mexico border. I wasn't able to get very close, since it is on protected land- on the Reservation of the Navajo. Someday, I would like to get permission from the tribe to get close enough to touch it. If that is allowed. It is considered a holy place to them. It feels holy. You can't be in its presence and not feel that God put it there on purpose, that it was designed as specifically as you or I were.
I don't think it is pessimistic to put all your photos on the computer. Somedays, thinking that I haven't yet told my story(ies) to anyone, or gotten any of my many books published yet, is the only thing that keeps me going. I will not give up, I will not surrender until I have made myself heard. Have you ever read Frank Herbert's Dune series, or seen the movies? The Sci-Fi channel mini-series was better, but the books are the best. Anyway, there is a line from the book that always inspires me. I'll have to paraphrase it here: "I'm dead to everyone unless I try to become what I know I can be."
I hope this message finds you, the Boss, your son and his lovely wife and their offspring all well. May the wind be always at your back, and the road rise up to meet you. Or is that backwards?

Love, Cali Gal

Hello Cali
I have put you on my friends list I hope that is O.K. I don't want to risk losing our conversations again.
I looked up both O'keefe and Adams on tne net. I agree with you that the Adams photographs are amazing. There is a book of his black and white plates I am going to try and get from our library and have a closer look.
Like you I am not keen on the O'Keefe paintings. They are interesting in a surreal kind of way but those I saw seemed to me to be a bit naive and childish as opposed to childlike, childlike can be moving in art childish is boring unless done by a child!
I do understand your feelings about the spiritual feel of certain stones. Near here is a group of stones named 'Men an Tol'. Two dolmen stones positioned each side of a holed stone. They stand about 2 metres high. tradition here says that if you pass a baby through the hole, father passing to mother, three times,face up, before the child is six months old the baby will never suffer from arthritis or become lame. The Boss and I passed both our boys through the stone as was usual in the 60's. The custom died out because our culture like so many others has been diluted by incomers bringing their own ideas down here.
Many years ago we went to Stonehenge, at that time it was not fenced off and there was no visitors centre as there is today. It was late November, afternoon and the light was dying. We were the only people there. Even the road which runs near by was quiet. The stones are awe inspiring and they have an aura about them which is strangely unsettling. Even my two boys were aware of the atmosphere. No one is really sure why these stones were erected in that particular place other than they are on the spot where two important leylines cross. One of the leylines also traverses St. Michael's Mount which is an ancient abbey built on an island near here. As you said the henge is almost certainly an observatory, although for many years it was thought to be a temple. Perhaps it was both.
I am sure that if you persist you will get the permission you need to go to Shiprock. It may be that even if you do not get there , the very fact that you try will inspire something in you. We never know where our aspirations will lead us.
You have said you are a writer, I sense that you are probably a poet also. It is important that we get the words out of our hearts and onto paper as we can never really know how important they are until another person reads them. Poetry is so important, I expect you knew that Plato in his 'Republic' said that poets and poetry would be banned. That is because he recognised how dangerous poetry can be in undermining the status quo.
I read the Dune novels many years ago, I was quite young and they thrilled me and at that time I was very impressionable. I now know that real life is more exciting and passionate than any book, however we must have books to stimulate our imagination as well as educate.
I have just realised I have become preachy again.
Back to the mundane stuff. We are still having dreadful weather and our summer seems to be over already.
The Boss and the family are as well as they can be in their varying circumstances.
I am struggling to write an essay on a piece of music known as Dunbarton Oaks which apparently is in the U.S.of A. I have until November to get it right it is part of my university course and I am not keen on Stravinsky who composed it. Apart from that my life is pretty cool.
Take care Cali
Kif