Dylan’s Passage of the Day: What is Mindfulness?

“Fundamentally, mindfulness is a simple concept. Its power lies in its practice and its applications. Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non judgementally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of the present moment reality. It wakes up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn “Wherever You Go There You Are” hachete Books

“Travels to a Different Time ” : 6July1972: Torremolinos, Spain: Back to Malaga to Pick Up Lost Scrabble Game : Infernal Flies: Huge Steaks For Dinner: Off to Morocco?

A flock of flies has become our morning alarm clock. After lunch I took the bus back to Malaga to get the Scrabble game Mom had left at Hotel Las Vegas. It was a long trip but a delicious homecooked dinner of Coq au Vin was the reward. I creamed Mom in a game of Scrabble. Her mother has taught me well so I am a Scrabble Master!

7July1972: Torremolinos, Spain

With these damn flies it is like beat em is not working. Perhaps we should join their team? We headed into the city centre after I crushed Mom in Scrabble. I haven’t seen such a mob on the bus since Greece and Yugoslavia. We stopped in at the tourist office and inquired how we could get to Morocco. We stopped a butcher’s shop and bought two huge steaks which we had for dinner with baked potatoes. While I have my doubts about anything unique about Torremolinos at least I am eating well. For all I know this place is a Miami Beach of Spain?

Reflections of Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog: Casualty on Peleliu Island (1944)

“‘Then the mortars came in again. Chuckler got a big chunk in his left thigh, close up to the crotch.’ Runner laughed in retrospect. ‘It was funny. He was so scared he lost the family jewels. ‘Are they all right?’ he asked the corpsman. ‘Quick, tell me they are all right?’ ‘Take it easy’ the corpsman tells him. It wasn’t even close. You got plenty of sack time ahead of you.’ So the Chuckler lies back smiling. He was so relieved you’d think he only cut his finger or something. I swear he’d have begged the corpsman to shoot him if it had been the other way.”

Robert Leckie “Helmet For My Pillow” Bantam Books

“Travels to a Different Time” : 4July1972: Torremolinos, Spain: Bloody Flies and A Finger Is Almost Cut Off! Donkey Poop vs. Traffic

4July1972: Awoken by the flies buzzing all around. I killed 11 of these pesky brutes. Eggs, ham and toast for breakfast. We then went over to our American friends, Gloria and Buddy, and met them at their hotel pool and we stayed until 6 and left. Coming home we had to cross a busy road which took us five minutes to do. I am more used to avoiding donkey poop in my travels than automobile traffic. We returned home to a battle with the flies. I killed 24. We had Mom’s beef bourguignon and rice for dinner and went to see an old black and white film with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley McLain.

5July1972: Woken up by the flies. We took the bus to Marbella and Mom insisted we go to a restaurant described in “Europe on 5 and 10 Dollars a Day”. After asking four or five people we found it. It was under new management and the prices had changed from what was described in the book. We had spaghetti and meatballs at 12.5 pesetas each. That is less than a dollar for both of us but Mom’s spaghetti is better. On the way back we stopped at Fuengirola and we rented an apartment at Sofico for two weeks. $8.50 a day. Margaret Mary Entry; The butcher at the market across the street is a huge women with blonde hair tied in a bun. You should see her handle a knife! I bought a chicken and pointed where I wanted it cut and nearly had my finger chopped off.

RKS Film: “The Queen of Basketball”: One of the Most Important Athletes in the 20th Century in The United States

It is 2022 and tonight the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team is playing for a gold medal against the United States in the Beijing Olympics. Having been watching the Canadian women’s hockey team playing over the last decade I take them for granted but the journey to national recognition certainly couldn’t have easy. And between you and me the women’s hockey game has a different pace and the prohibition about body checks brings out the finesse of hockey you will not see in men’s hockey.  Quite frankly it is captivating and Canadians are slowly giving recognition to women’s hockey stars.

But there are pioneers in women’s sport such as Lusia “Lucy” Harris who exploded onto the women’s basketball scene in the 1970’s after joining the Delta State women’s basketball team in Cleveland, Mississippi where she powered the team to three successive national championships and was part of the United States Olympic basketball team at the 1976 Montreal summer Olympics where she scored the first basket in women’s basketball Olympic history.

But after that it seemed she had nowhere to go as there was no WNBA in existence. She was drafted in 1977 by the New Orleans’s Pelican’s NBA team but declined the offer and ended up coaching her high school basketball team. Her bi-polar disorder surfaced after the Montreal Olympics.

Lusia comes across as a humble and giggly athlete that accepted the reality of the day after her basketball career and without bitterness and with grace. She was one of the first women inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

You might want to shake your head and say she deserved better but with grace and dignity Lusia accepted the reality of the day. But her dynamism and huge basketball skills advanced women’s basketball and thanks to this documentary one can see her role played by a very classy lady. There is no bitterness, no recriminations just her love of basketball that will be her biggest tribute. She died at 66 in January 18 in Mississippi.

The documentary has been nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 94th Academy Awards. You can see it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPFkcoTfr7g&t=198s

Directed by Ben Proudfoot and executive produced by Shaquille O’Neal.

RKS Film Rating 90/100.

RKS Wine: Marynissen Estates: Two Strikes And You Are Out

How generous should you be before calling a winery out? My view is two strikeouts and that winery is out or if you are more forgiving perhaps on probation. I have called a strikeout on Marynissen’s 2019 Cabernet Franc giving that tired and anemic wine a 64/100. What will the 2019 Cabernet Merlot bring?

Considering it’s made with 15% of the 2019 Cabernet Franc coupled with 49% Merlot and 36% Cabernet Sauvignon the latter two grapes being Ontario weakling grapes I’d be seriously watching the batter and if he strikes out again maybe it is time to send him back to Triple A in Biddlypoop, Kansas.

Ok the pitcher winds up and releases the ball with the Marynissen batter tensing up. The aroma presents one with a relaxed black cherry, very ripe strawberry and cola. The batter at least makes some contact but it is a foul ball way down left field but in the stands. The pitcher winds up and here comes the ball. The tannins are moderate. But the Marynissen batter is having a flashback about the poor 2019 Cabernet Franc and a fastball whizzes by him over the strike zone while he suffers from embarrassment at his last strikeout at his previous at bat. The Marynissen batter takes another strike looking like a rabbit nibbling on the vines just before a vineyard hawk scoops him up for dinner. The batting coach comes onto the field seeing the Marynissen batter is in distress. A few calming words and a pat on the back and he trots back to the bench. Has this little break caused concentration to return for the Marynissen batter? The fans wait as the wine aerates. Here comes the ball and it’s the treacherous knuckleball looking like it is coming in at over 100 when actually it is the mid sixties. The Marynissen batter lifts his leg and readies the swing. He looks like he is going to pound that ball out of the park after all he had 26 home runs last year and a Golden Glove award but that was yesterday and today is today. The hometown crowd is on its feet. So before the call is made or the ball hit the taste of the wine is again what one might expect from depleted soil. Smack sounds the ball as it hits the catcher’s mitt and the umpire yells “Yuuuuur Out!” Marynissen strikes out again. I am staying away from their wines. Many ballplayers have had their day and struggle for a year or so before they retire. My last interaction with Marynissen was perhaps a decade ago and their win and loss record was far better than it is now.

(Marynissen Estates 2019 Cabernet Merlot, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Marynissen Estates, Niagara-on-the-Lake, $17.95, LCBO #16713, 750 mL, 13.5%, A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 69/100).

Reflections of Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog: Malaria of a U.S. Marine in The Jungle 0f 1944 New Britain

“To lie on my back was torture, to lie on my stomach a torment. I tried to lie on my side, but even here my bones ached as though they were being cracked in the grip of giant pliers. I could not eat. I could not drink-not even water. They fed me through the veins, intravenously, for how long I do not know-ten days, two weeks. All the time I lay baking-not burning or flaming, understand , but baking as though I were in an oven-feeling the will to live shrivel within me, yearning only for a tiny trickle of sweat to burst from my desiccated flesh, hearing people alive and talking around me, the touch of the nurse, the momentary cool of the alcohol being rubbed on my back like a blissful reminder of the world I had left, but comprehending nothing. Lying there, only a rag of aching bones slowly shrinking in the glowing oven of malaria.”

Robert Leckie “Helmet for my Pillow” Bantam Books

“Travels to a Different Time” : 30June1972: Torremolinos, Spain: Finding an Apartment

We have moved to the ocean to Torremolinos which is relatively close to Malaga and is popular with European tourists. There is a big building boom on so this town is going to be an even huger tourist destination. Our apartment has a kitchen and a balcony facing the ocean. After unpacking we went to a local restaurant and had a delicious meal of paella. We retuned home for a swim in the pool and headed out for some tapas which are a whole bunch of small dishes. I loved the potatoes and the octopus. Back home to bed and I think we will be over the jet lag tomorrow.

3July1972: Torremolinos, Spain: The Beach Smells Like a Sewer: Off to the Tabu Discotheque: CAVA at 5 Cents a Bottle

We have a big market just around the corner full of meat, fish and vegetables. We bought two pounds of shrimp for $2 and some type of local fish. A North American meal of hamburgers for lunch. After a siesta it was to the beach down the street which smelt like a sewer. We met a couple of Americans and went back with them to their hotel and swam in their pool. We came home and had shrimp and fish for dinner and Mom had some sparkling wine she paid 5 cents a bottle for. We met the two Americans after dinner and I went off to the Tabu discotheque and Mom and the Americans went to Club Cleopatra. We met up at 1 a.m. and headed home

“Travels to A Different Time ” 29June1972: United States and Malaga, Spain: Back in Shape and on The Road: Air Sickness Bag Has a Visitor!

Having received medical clearance to fly and live a normal active life it is back in Europe to Malaga in Spain. Mom has been talking about wanting to visit Spain and here we are here. It was via Washington from New York. Poor Mom filled up an air sickness bag. First time she has been airsick. I am happy to be back in Europe but suffering from jet lag everything is a bit fuzzy. We ate in the hotel restaurant after having a swim. After this early dinner the joys of sleep! Diary Entry Margaret Stephen: I put out my swimsuit and stretched out in the sun and got a burnt stomach. I lost the Scrabble game I bought in New York. How dumb can you be?

“Travels to A Different Time” : 1972 Travel: The Warmup: A 16 Year Old In Europe Alone!

1972 adventures are coming up and it is the beginning of June and I have mononucleosis and I know the transmitter. The niece of the headmaster of my high school. Bad luck. I have to lay low. No sport. No parties. Strangely I am sort of a celebrity at school. A man of the world so as to speak. This will delay travel plans until I get medical clearance. I can swim and rest up in the sun so I am not in an Iron Lung!

Now in a big development Mom and I have agreed she will come with me for a couple of weeks wherever we go and then I will be on my own. As she has said I have in “training” experience for this for the last couple of summers. I have navigated a wild and woolly Europe and have turned from a boy into a man with street smarts. She says my father would be proud how I have turned into a man. That’s what he wanted on his dying bed and he was one tough guy fighting the The Battle of Britain. I will be 16 on my own in Europe. I am ready for it. I am looking forward to it. Again I think how many 16-year-olds are doing this. We have run into many hippies in Europe but they are all in their 20’s. I have listened to their stories and coping mechanisms and tips. I was living with and like them. Hat’s off to Mom for having the faith and confidence in me. She absolutely wants lots of letters from me. We have our sights on Spain. I know my mother had a favourite aunt, Marjorie who was a bon vivant so unlike my Temperance grandmother. She actually died in Spain while living there. I suppose I have one or two hurdles to pass before I go. I am having a terrible time with Algebra at school. I have my own logic about solving problems but it is wrong but my teacher Mr. Spencer understands my insights and appreciates it but it is strangely logical and consistent but wrong. I am so frustrated and am at the edge and I will fight like hell not to fail as I will not fail on my solo adventure in Europe. I must pass Algebra to prove to myself. I will not fail in Europe. Mr. Spencer said he would work with me so with my best friend Michael R we spend two hours a day after school for a month with Mr. Spencer working on Algebra. I look longingly at the field wishing I could be practicing pitching hardball with Michael R as I have a unique sidearm and submarine delivery. But we focus. And the provincial matriculation exam for Algebra takes place and it is a breeze. I am a student on the verge of failure but the provincial matriculation results are released and I AM IN THE TOP 1%! A person without hope obtaining this result. A life lesson. If someone cares about you anything is possible. I receive some award for this feat. I am feeling invincible. Bring it on Europe! I am sure my father will be watching over me with a grin on his face.