tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77673278050264905242012-02-14T23:05:17.430-08:00Boomers and BeyondFRAN MORELAND JOHNSFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.comBlogger691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-1781366363549769582012-02-10T16:23:00.000-08:002012-02-10T16:23:29.914-08:00Rick Santorum?? Seriously, now......."Why take Rick seriously?" Mitt Romney reportedly said to mega-millionaire Foster Friess not long ago. "Nobody takes Rick seriously." We wish.
Flush with triple success in the Republican primaries, Santorum is busy painting himself as certain all along that everyone understands he is the proper choice to lead the party into the White House. Santorum, of course, would probably not choose the Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-39862366323863466122012-01-24T23:47:00.000-08:002012-01-24T23:47:35.334-08:00A Little Pain Goes a Long WayRecently the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle featured a story by Erin Allday headlined "Women found to report far more pain than men." This is news? I could have written the whole thing without a Stanford study.
But here it is. The study theorizes that it could be hormonal (we're programmed to feel stuff) or philosophical (we pause to consider stuff) or site specific: "If I lined up 10Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-21250693016445661692012-01-04T23:17:00.000-08:002012-01-04T23:17:11.526-08:00The Unrehearsed Life<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
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Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-45897739644980601052011-12-31T18:08:00.000-08:002011-12-31T18:08:58.287-08:00Old Hope for a New YearNew years of my childhood were ushered in by the big bell in the Randolph-Macon College chapel, its slow, deliberate gongs filling the frosty darkness of Virginia night. It was always a magical time. As if a collective exhale you could almost hear from quietly opened windows launched the silent town into some new sphere of limitless possibility. Somebody in the distance would usually send up a Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-51811550392175239852011-12-12T16:31:00.000-08:002011-12-12T16:31:23.375-08:00On Decking the Halls in 2011<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]>
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mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4ptFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-89713898397161966172011-12-05T14:22:00.000-08:002011-12-06T21:31:44.600-08:00Helping a friend dieMy friend Claire died early this morning, essentially as she had wished: no tubes, no wires, no life-prolonging interventions. She had come home from the hospital and even been able to join her extended family briefly at Thanksgiving. It was not a death without suffering, but it was a death she acknowledged and chose to accept.
It’s not accurate to say I “helped” Claire die; in reality I had Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-17331235573086998142011-11-26T22:53:00.000-08:002011-11-26T22:53:41.355-08:00Thankfulness in any languageOne of my undisputed favorite times is the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service hosted annually, at one spot or another, by the San Francisco Interfaith Council. This year, the 7th annual such event was at Konko Church in Japantown.
Having grown up with the buckled shoes/ pilgrim hats/ pumpkin pie Thanksgiving, it’s nice to couch the holiday in somewhat broader and more inclusively thankful terms.
Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-64855967304040457022011-11-16T12:03:00.000-08:002011-11-16T12:03:58.976-08:00Observing the OccupationsFollowing the Occupy movement from the sidelines is interesting; figuring out how you stand on it all is a challenge. I find myself envious of those so decidedly and ferociously on one side or another.
Being firmly in the 99%, it's hard not to empathize with the protesters. Even if some of them are clearly in it for less than admirable reasons, the idealism of many is refreshing and the notion Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-50921281084364217602011-11-09T09:47:00.000-08:002011-11-09T09:47:06.096-08:00Sanity Prevails in MississippiLet's hear it for Mississippi voters.
By a margin of 130,000, or well over 15% of votes cast, they turned down a dangerous constitutional amendment that would have defined life "to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof." It was sponsored by the "personhood" people, who are concerned with "protecting the pre-born," but whose Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-2606712184959814272011-11-07T10:43:00.000-08:002011-11-07T10:43:55.427-08:00"Personhood" and Women's RightsSomewhere there is a disconnect.
The human population of this fragile planet has topped seven billion, headed to eight billlion at a record pace -- we should be there by 2023 even as we continue to kill each other for stupid reasons. Or for no reason at all.
The "personhood" movement now focusing on Mississippi's Initiative 26, which declares an egg to be a person the instant it is Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-16041336158149041652011-10-24T11:57:00.000-07:002011-10-24T11:57:49.624-07:00Signs of our protesting timesI wrote a small blog for Open Salon recently, having been invited to blog about the Occupy America movement. Maybe the movement will go somewhere, maybe not. I hope it doesn't go where Libya seems to be going, what with today's news of the new leaders' commitment to Shariah law -- which leans heavily toward amputations and floggings and stonings and men having up to four wives. None of those Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-4780578541501882762011-10-06T14:43:00.000-07:002011-10-06T14:43:39.201-07:00The cold truth about dark matterFull disclosure: I never went to the University of California, Berkeley -- probably couldn't have passed Chemistry 1-2 if I had -- and I don't know Saul Perlmutter. But in meetings around the San Francisco Bay area in recent days, everyone I met seemed to know Saul Perlmutter, or know somebody who knows somebody who knows Saul Perlmutter.
Perlmutter, in case your computer has no news stream at Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-61740501386027263812011-09-26T20:13:00.000-07:002011-09-26T20:13:15.062-07:00The passing of Sam the GoldenWe buried Sam the unforgettable golden retriever yesterday, a little more than nine months after taking him on a farewell walk along the San Francisco Bay because he was dying fast. But Sam, 14, which is a respectable old age in golden dog years, decided to perk up and hang around a little longer. This was a considerable gift from one species to another.
Night before last, he decided the time Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-45292439281751974152011-09-12T10:13:00.000-07:002011-09-12T10:13:34.381-07:00A good time for tolerance & respectIftekhar Hai, president of the United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance, is a man of good will, strong convictions and great hope. I've been fortunate to serve with him for a number of years on the San Francisco Interfaith Council board, so he is my go-to guy for all matters Quranic and Islamic. In these days of focus on 9-11 it's sometimes hard to remember that there is no one, monolithic "Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-72530945526416558522011-09-06T13:28:00.000-07:002011-09-06T13:28:40.267-07:00Sitar music in the park<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]>
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mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4ptFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-50889577771682076762011-09-03T12:34:00.000-07:002011-09-03T18:05:54.762-07:00Watch TV, die youngAt last: vindication. Those of us who still cling to newspapers and old-fashioned print media for enlightenment now have had this good judgement affirmed by the Harvard School of Public Health. Prolonged TV viewing, according to a recent HSPH study, is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. Take that, reality shows. Real-time, Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-24087394134759307362011-08-25T11:48:00.000-07:002011-08-25T11:48:44.031-07:00Peace at Life's End: Why not?Armond and Dorothy Rudolph were a couple most of us would've liked to know: born about the time of the first World War, married in 1941, parents of a son and a daughter, independent spirits all their lives. Daughter Elaine said they had given her a deep love for God, family, music and growing a garden.
At 92 and 90 the Rudolphs, facing early-onset dementia and coping with multiple medical issuesFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-87889329222455022972011-08-19T10:36:00.000-07:002011-08-19T10:36:53.959-07:00Gertrude Stein: pure fun: who knew?Does art -- or, for that matter, music, dance, color, beauty -- have to make sense to bring joy? If you think that's true, you need to see the new production of Gertrude Stein's Four Saints in Three Acts: An opera installation before it leaves the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Or whenever you get a chance. Surely something this much fun will reappear somewhere else in less time than it Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-31971779445031923522011-08-18T11:54:00.000-07:002011-08-18T11:54:54.198-07:00Extra points for exercisingToday's good word on exercise comes from Time Magazine's Healthland segment: 15 minutes a day can extend your life. For us fitness minimalists, that's a happy thought.
The par course at Mountain Lake Park, a few blocks from my San Francisco home, is one of my favorite places in the world. If you don't know 'par course,' it's also, probably more recently, known as a fitness trail: an outside Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-59145928873342438532011-08-15T23:00:00.000-07:002011-08-15T23:00:30.701-07:00The skinny on sciatica
This is a small look at the Big Pain: that nerviest of nerves, the sciatic. Until I offended my own – running to catch a bus last October 20, in party shoes after a fancy luncheon; I was sure I’d been shot in the hip – I never gave a thought to sciatica. Except to think it was just for little old ladies, which I do not yet admit to being even if I am.
Turns out half the world has sciatica. I Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-25093803875372481752011-08-07T22:57:00.000-07:002011-08-07T22:57:38.688-07:00Good news? Hard to find, but still...With encouraging words in short supply these days, it was good to have former San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau Chief (now teaching politics & journalism at the University of California Berkeley) Marc Sandalow take on a few of the myths of American politics in a recent essay. Not that myth-debunking itself is good news, exactly -- except the one that maintains the U.S. is broke -- but Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-24976460995445237782011-07-13T17:50:00.000-07:002011-07-13T17:50:07.744-07:00E-cigarettes: Fun new roads to ruin<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
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Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-6563477382355742332011-07-04T11:14:00.000-07:002011-07-04T11:14:55.050-07:00World Peace & the Brahma Kumaris World peace: you may think it unlikely. But spend a few hours among members and friends of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization, and you could change your mind. Brahma Kumaris “study spiritual knowledge that nurtures respect for all faith traditions, coherently explains the nature of soul, God, time, and karma, and delineates an enlightened lifestyle;” try to argue with thatFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-52909622815018012011-06-23T17:05:00.000-07:002011-06-23T17:05:48.967-07:00Digging for truth about cancer drugs<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]>
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mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4ptFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-53256310909689097062011-06-11T06:59:00.000-07:002011-06-11T07:10:55.051-07:00Neighbor Loss - one of life's catastrophesWhen the big, white Bekins truck pulled off I couldn’t even turn around and look. I was walking up the block, having done the goodbye hug etc, but the finality of hearing the loading ramp clang shut and the engine motors start was too much. I mean, I was in serious mourning.
Having worked as a hospice volunteer, with an AIDS support group and as a volunteer for Compassion and Choices, I do Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-43047267738735988902011-06-02T14:03:00.000-07:002011-06-02T16:44:02.493-07:00Caregiving 101: Ban the B-word<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]>
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mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4ptFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-84556728037198381632011-05-27T00:28:00.000-07:002011-05-27T00:28:37.791-07:00Adventures in cyberspaceIf you've been here before -- to this little corner of the cyberworld -- you'll notice a difference. That's because my super-guru adviser Mary Trigiani has been working with me to make some sense of my scatter-shot collection of blogs and pages and social networks.
Boomers and Beyond was, for something over a year, my paid blog on news aggregate True/Slant.com. It was a lot of fun, and Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-35695790237329734022011-04-24T19:05:00.000-07:002011-05-26T14:55:01.867-07:00Sam the Golden lives againSpring may actually be coming to Northern California: green hillsides, poppies blooming, cherry-tree-scented air taking the place of the daily, weekly, monthly rains. It’s been a very long winter season of saying, “I know we need the rain, but still…” So we’re finally getting the new season, springtime, rebirth, resurrection, all that good stuff.
And apparently, Sam understands. This space, a Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-15115351161531636192011-01-22T22:21:00.000-08:002011-01-22T22:28:18.640-08:00Mourning Reynolds PriceReynolds Price's death is not just a literary light extinguished, it's a whole blackout. There's not another Reynolds Price.As has been affirmed everywhere I've ever listed influences and shining lights, Reynolds Price is my literary hero. The man could write ANYTHING -- essays, short stories, poetry, novels, commentary, you name it -- and write it beautifully. Characters who were dead-on, Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-75615476724482134562011-01-14T11:35:00.000-08:002011-01-14T11:46:59.639-08:00Old dogs, new yearsSam, an aging and extraordinarily lovable golden retriever, went for a final Old Year walk on the beach recently, and pronounced life good. Even if it's been a less than wonderful year in many ways, to have Sam's assessment of the old year, right here as the New Year arrives, is somehow comforting.I got to accompany Sam and his mom, my friend Margaret, along with our two-legged friend Marilyn andFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-49108826752722491692010-12-28T16:38:00.000-08:002010-12-28T16:42:05.817-08:00Peace -- anywhere? -- on earthIn the olden days of the 20th century, at least until the latter third or so, there was a quaint custom for newspapers — remember newspapers? — to print nothing but good news on the front page on December 25, in recognition of the historical figure celebrated by Christians around the globe as the Prince of Peace. Even for followers of other religious traditions, or of no religion of all, there Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-64245382142370653382010-12-13T09:42:00.000-08:002010-12-13T16:29:06.423-08:00Warm moments in cold climesSnow, ice, hazardous roads, slate-gray skies, traffic delays, frigid winds -- ah, New York in December.We were beyond lucky, my daughter Sandy and I, to pick last Saturday for a drive from Manhattan to Ithaca to visit my sister Helen. It's 4+ hours each way. You've really got to want to do this, spend nine hours in the car for a four hour visit in one day... or maybe you just really want to see Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-26431769231109304402010-11-23T15:51:00.000-08:002010-11-23T16:08:59.726-08:00Hello again out there...All these months past I've been blogging over at True/Slant, then T/S was bought by Forbes and I went over to Open Salon, which is more fun and certainly less pressure, and sometimes I wonder if anyone happens in to the old Celebrations site. For anyone who might do so, here's today's thought:In a new twist on the old A-minister-a-priest-and-a-rabbi-went-into-a-bar joke, a minister, a rabbi and aFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-89315085621138052532009-10-02T18:20:00.000-07:002009-10-02T18:31:08.206-07:00Modeling how to die<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]--> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Castellar; panose-1:2 10 4 2 6 4 6 1 3 1; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-68257412608799290542009-09-06T16:50:00.000-07:002009-09-06T17:04:14.979-07:00PatienceAll things, I think, do not come to those who wait. What about Godot? Or that Smith-Corona stock that seemed to be such a nostalgic good idea?Waiting was not always totally painful. Back when you knew Santa would bring at least one or two joyful surprises, or when the late-night radio personality you were dating spun the sign-off music and was headed to your apartment, that old Patience Is A Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-70085686083171795622009-08-13T17:43:00.000-07:002009-08-13T17:57:18.194-07:00Sisters and Heroes
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-familyFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-82907030594778426232009-08-11T09:51:00.000-07:002009-08-11T09:53:30.401-07:00Reading Along with David SouterYou have to love David Souter. First he tosses the world's best tenured job out the window when jobs aren't exactly going begging, then he doesn't announce a book deal, then you start learning about his digs. The New Hampshire farmhouse, it turns out, wasn't exactly a castle: no phone, no running water, a definition of Souter-rustic. Then you learn he has quit the farmhouse in Weare for a Cape Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-21011751419740166562009-07-29T18:21:00.000-07:002009-07-29T18:44:08.902-07:00Celebrations, changes and challengesThe quietude of this space of late is in direct proportion to the activity, at long last!, over at my new blog on True/Slant.com. Boomers and Beyond (you're invited to visit) looks at issues of concern to seniors and, increasingly also to their boomer children. Health and healthcare, housing, fitness, economic survival, liesure & recreation. We're open to suggestion. True/Slant is a Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-10669056318233534722009-06-21T14:28:00.000-07:002009-06-21T14:45:51.874-07:00A Novel Path to Better HealthcareHere's a revolutionary idea: “Ask the patient.”This suggestion was made recently by the President’s Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer in a speech on “The Great Credit Freeze and the U.S. Economy.” The talk was all about improving healthcare while slowing down the growth of its cost. We know we can’t reduce costs, Dr. Romer said; what we hope to do is reduce the rate of increase. Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-84383199745869731592009-06-07T21:51:00.000-07:002009-06-07T22:04:01.425-07:00Health LiteracyHealth Literacy, which is as much about common sense as about the three R’s, can nevertheless be a matter of life and death. Rebecca Sudore M.D. covered the issue in a recent talk to a group of healthcare professionals and volunteers in which she included video clips and verbal summaries of cases that bring chills: a woman who didn’t know she was having a hysterectomy until after the fact becauseFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-80484500972547819152009-05-26T09:00:00.000-07:002009-05-26T09:13:22.696-07:00Missing Uncle Porter's FuneralHis buddies, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, are on either side of my Uncle Porter in the photo. Uncle Porter is smiling the sly grin embedded in my heart, his arms around the other two, who are leaning in close, perhaps to catch one of the pearls of country wisdom he regularly doled out or – more likely – waiting for the punch line of a good joke. The photo was sent a few years ago by his Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-53764657942392610572009-05-13T19:14:00.000-07:002009-05-13T19:21:59.212-07:00Juries of one's peersNewly out of a San Francisco jury pool, though I hardly got wet, I am reflecting on this being-judged-by-a-jury-of-one’s-peers business.The defendant, turning to face us as we filed into the courtroom, was a 60-something man with a kind face and gentle demeanor. I knew from the color of his skin and the neighborhood he called home that I had had advantages in life which he had not. I knew from Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-7978266914835093362009-04-23T23:35:00.000-07:002009-04-23T23:48:08.382-07:00Two guys in one hospice roomHal is down to about 80 pounds, blind, bedridden, unable to feed himself, incontinent for the past six years and in a VA hospice. There he receives good care and dozens of daily meds that keep him alive. At the request of a friend of his, I visited him recently to talk about his options. They are, essentially, keep doing what he’s doing – or let what’s being done to him keep on being done – for Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-15192240231950855722009-03-27T09:35:00.000-07:002009-03-27T09:45:09.168-07:00Dementia, the last tabooDementia, the elephant in the conversational room, has begun to lift its trunk and trumpet around. Ask anyone over 60, or almost anyone whose parents are over 60, to list the Big Fears, and dementia will be up there at the top. But precisely because it defies solution, can’t be predicted and won’t go away, it has long been among the great taboos for meaningful public discourse.Perhaps that’s Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-70448801425632999182009-03-09T19:38:00.000-07:002009-03-09T20:01:26.692-07:00The Joys of OxalisPulling oxalis is one of life’s little abundances. Not because of anything to do with gardening, or weeding, or environmental enhancement. If one looks closely at the issue, oxalis-pulling is an exercise in existential self-care. I know this because I pull oxalis on a continuing basis. As therapy, you understand, not as enterprise. Weeding, trimming, yard-care all smack of work. An hour or so Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-5728452456947798392009-02-19T14:48:00.000-08:002009-02-22T20:17:19.463-08:00TransiencyThe sad thing about John Updike’s being dead, other than the loss in general, is the loss in literary size. Like my #1 literary hero Reynolds Price, Updike could do it all: novels, essays, short stories, poetry, critiques, nonfiction, it was enough to make you want to hang up your computer forever. But the other thing, Updike being almost exactly my own age, is the timing. When I read his Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-83954651432188083892009-01-10T11:34:00.000-08:002009-01-25T22:27:16.676-08:00Singing with SistersMy sister Mimi and I used to belt out a two-part harmony tune on our way to work in downtown Richmond, VA a few decades back. “Strolling aLONnng… singing a sonnng… side by side.” Nobody threw shoes at us, although some may have considered it. We actually kept the volume down. But the world at any decibel level was our oyster and the sidewalks of a dozen or so blocks between our apartment and jobsFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-43708568706687900822008-12-11T22:23:00.000-08:002008-12-12T11:10:55.137-08:00SorrowWhen my daughter Pam was 17, she had a group of incandescent friends – Julie, Catherine, Kim, Martha, Polly and others – who lit the spaces of our lives. They went on to college, jobs, marriages and adventures, lost track of each other at times and got back together at high school reunions. They encountered heartaches and obstacles, found success and contentment and joy.A few weeks ago, Kim’s Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-40663841323584593622008-11-08T17:14:00.000-08:002008-11-08T18:35:44.024-08:00Conversations With CarsSome of us talk to ourselves, some of us talk to cars.As in a recent parking episode, at the intersection of 9th Street and Bryant in downtown San Francisco. It happened at the precise spot where traffic from the Hwy 101 off-ramp muscles its impatient way into the mainstream maelstrom of 9th Street. I was late for a lunch meeting on Bryant.“I don’t think I want to go into reverse,” said The Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-63091056628831941512008-10-19T22:49:00.000-07:002008-10-19T22:59:30.223-07:00The Dow, the campaign and the surgeryWhile the country was wobbling and reeling, my husband set about having spinal fusion surgery in order to stand up straighter. The country still lists and lurches, but my good husband Bud, thanks to some extraordinary surgical skills, is upright. More upright by several serious percentage points, even. Would that the Dow might do the same. Would that the campaigns might also consider Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-34578243692792593412008-10-07T19:42:00.000-07:002008-10-09T16:33:57.325-07:00These Financial TimesOK, let’s see. Derivatives; mortgage-backed securities and collateralized investments (which means stuff that is insecure and lacks collateral); credit-default swaps; tranches and bonds and TARPs oh, my; these are the words one needs today to throw around in casual conversation. In addition to the Rescue plan, formerly known as the Bailout.For those of us who never wanted to know anything about Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-68572376240645867852008-09-10T16:20:00.000-07:002008-09-10T23:04:36.088-07:00Old Words, New WordsMy friend and fellow Compassion and Choices NCA co-chair Stewart Florsheim recently had his fine book of poetry, A Short Fall from Grace, featured in Pedestal Magazine, in a thorough and insightful review by Alice Osborn. Early on, Ms. Osborn declared Stewart a “master of the ekphrastic poem…” which sent at least two of us rushing off to our dictionaries. Alas, nothing there. Not in the Random Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-54249990831469964762008-08-30T17:42:00.000-07:002008-08-30T18:02:46.836-07:00Reading about it in the morningWhat with the Olympics, the conventions and other breaking news these days, there seems an awful lot of TV-watching going on. I don’t do TV very well. For one thing, the Comcast people – whom I actively loathe and despise so I hope your mother doesn’t work there – in their infinite wisdom furnish us with 82 channels, which is 76 more TV channels than I could ever possibly want. There are, of Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-44471111734463490722008-08-13T20:21:00.000-07:002008-08-13T20:29:53.517-07:00Writers BlogkIn the virtual world of the blogosphere there are those who suffer guilt over failure to blog. This despite evidence that the world manages to get along just fine without our daily contributions. I hear of this guilt about infrequency and irregularity, though, from my more gifted and committed blogger friends, and certainly stress out about it myself when one of my several readers says, “Umm, youFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-1588708815851913202008-08-07T16:50:00.000-07:002008-08-07T17:02:08.798-07:00Matters of Life and DeathIt’s a little cluttered and disorganized on my soapbox… but I still climb up here. During a workshop on advance directives I recently led for a San Francisco women’s group, a wistful, sloe-eyed fifty-something looked up from the documents she was finishing and said, “Could we please get my mom back from the wherever to fill this out?” She then told us a tale of angst and anguish about her mother’Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-9950248053848283792008-07-29T17:40:00.000-07:002008-07-29T18:02:01.845-07:00On getting along...It was a special treat recently to attend several sessions of the 20th annual meeting of the North American Interfaith Network, happily held this year on the campus of my MFA alma mater, the University of San Francisco. Ever alert for a good story – especially a publishable one – I e-mailed my friend and Beliefnet.com editor to see if they’d be interested in a report. (I wrote a piece for Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-46675153597333943462008-07-16T17:08:00.000-07:002008-07-16T17:21:07.333-07:00East Coast, West CoastI’ve been lucky to do some coast-to-coast trips in recent weeks, enjoying life on both sides of the country over that time – which included the July 4th weekend. It prompted these profound reflections on east v west that may be worth recording: Patriotism – Flag-waving still survives, though it’s certainly not just Old Glory any more (almost as many rainbow flags abound in Atlanta Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-33623214983472612962008-06-27T11:00:00.000-07:002008-06-27T11:34:58.202-07:00Chance encountersStuff matters not. Friends matter. I had that old truism abundantly reinforced in the past several weeks… when I’ve been blogging only in my head. That’s my excuse for this stale blogspace, and hopefully it merits putting down in black, white and cyberspace. I made the leap into a new – gasp – quarter century on June 8, with the help of something over 100 friends in the Bay area and warm wishes Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-57730498823767206252008-06-05T23:20:00.000-07:002008-06-05T23:31:18.520-07:00A gentle apparitionMy mother, who died at 70 in 1967, made a brief reappearance here in San Francisco last week. It was during a visit I made to the bedside of Lik Kiu Ding, age 90-something (born in the jungles of Borneo he never knew exactly when.) I had not seen him in years, until learning he’s now at a nearby assisted living facility. Lik Kiu was like a son to my father, who helped him finish his education in Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-7391226701599123392008-06-03T14:34:00.000-07:002008-06-03T14:54:21.777-07:00Comfort and JoyI spoke recently to a group of incredibly informed and articulate women, members of the San Francisco OWL chapter. (It used to be an acronym for Older Women’s League, but is now simply OWL, and its members do tend to be very wise.) Plus, any time you can get several dozen busy women to come out on a cold, gray, drizzly, Saturday morning for a talk entitled Living for Now, Preparing for Later, it Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-85968688262113928342008-05-23T23:10:00.001-07:002008-05-23T23:18:42.656-07:00Barack and Jane and MeI had such a good time writing a brief blog about bonding with Barack, thanks to a sometime shared agent, on my Red Room blog, perhaps you'll surf over to my author page on redroom.com and read it. Too lazy to re-write. But I AM going to get something new and profound up on this space soon, I am, I am!Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-5806431787785196362008-04-21T15:38:00.000-07:002008-05-10T15:30:55.101-07:00Stories will always be aroundRoger Mudd, whose new book The Place to Be will delight even those who don't remember when the real news came on TV at 6, told about getting questioned by a journalism student on whether there were any future in the business. (Roger is less than optimistic about the future of news as in newspapers, radio or TV. His book is largely about glory days of the news business when indeed Washington -- Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-50396904261995096012008-04-10T13:48:00.000-07:002008-04-13T17:37:23.102-07:00Let me see if I can get this straight. New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, back in '03, witnessed to some events which at which he was unfortunately not a witness. More recently, Margaret Seltzer, aka Jones, penned a memoir, Love and Consequences, duly published by Riverhead Books and subsequently recalled, but you can buy it on Amazon; it was unfortunately not exactly remembered, since it Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-67492112893589012492008-04-05T17:15:00.000-07:002008-04-07T10:12:06.609-07:00New words, new StuffI recently attended my first, and perhaps last, Webinar. Since encountering the term (and after duly registering and attending) I've come to understand that webinars are old hat to the tech savvy, but I remain unconvinced that all of this new techno-wonder is necesssarily wondrous. (Power point presenters, for example, should, in my humble opinion, be confined in a small room with laser beams Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-11644916319031214752008-03-28T22:59:00.000-07:002008-04-05T13:34:24.522-07:00On racing through lifeTwo years ago, seized with the notion that everyone should run a marathon before she turns 75 and realizing that didn't leave me a lot of time, I bought a ridiculously expensive pair of running shoes and signed up for the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. Well, said my daughters Sandy & Pam, and Sandy's running buddy Nan (later adding Pam-2), if you're going to do that, we'll come out and Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-64237501285346003082008-03-25T18:40:00.000-07:002008-03-25T19:30:12.098-07:00Conversations 101Talk may be cheap, but it's not always easy. Or done well. I'm watching Barack Obama with joy and enthusiasm for, among other reasons, his inclination to talk to anybody, anywhere without even rattling swords in the background. Closer to home, and to the issues I often deal with, talk among communities of different faiths more often than not serves to show us we all believe just about exactly theFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-69533930560149024852008-03-21T23:24:00.000-07:002008-03-24T13:18:15.651-07:00New Music, Old Music, a Feast of SoundHere's something to celebrate: new music. I grew up (that's me with the pigtails, c.1944 in our Ashland, VA back yard; I was very proud of that Girl Scout belt) to my older sisters' big band dances, jazz and gospel and symphonies on the Victrola; they grew up to be serious musicians and one very accomplished artist. Recently I've gotten to know Carla Kihlstedt and her music. Went to hear the new Fran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-14203340073468921962008-03-15T14:19:00.000-07:002008-03-16T16:39:33.933-07:00On living, dying and grandchildrenMy youngest grandchildren just went to their first funeral, and I suspect they're all the better for the experience. They are 6 and 4. (I hear intake of breath from readers.) They had been separated from their mother for a long week as she attended the decline and death of her own mother hundreds of miles distant, and now she wanted the family together. As might be imagined, extensive discussionsFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7767327805026490524.post-23128263097740319832008-03-08T12:31:00.000-08:002008-03-08T14:24:48.150-08:00Welcome to my blog.I picked the topic while walking in the gorgeous San Francisco sunshine with my gorgeous friend Mary Trigiani one day, talking about what ties together the erratic strands of my life. Celebrating, we said. Celebrating the beauty of this place (and other places), celebrating life and occasionally death, celebrating friends and families and faith. "You really need to start a blogFran Johnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02145000727924721130noreply@blogger.com7