MORGAN'S MOMENT...
My mother used to do this…
    I thought while washing clothes
    in a tub of sudsy water.

I remember her arms in the suds
    leaning over the deep tub
    plunging clothes up and down.

We didn’t have an electric washer
    nor do we here at the cabin
    where we do it all by hand.

As I hung my clothes on the line
    I could see her doing the same
    with more lines and clothes.

A weekly task for her…
    with four little boys
    besides herself and our dad.

Monday was for washing…
    Wednesday for folding
    plus ironing later.

It’s hot today so things will dry…
    I’ll take them off the line
    when I come in from sailing.

It was hard work for mom…
    but I don’t remember
    ever a complaint.

Her life fulfillment was
    a husband and four boys…
    washing clothes was part of it.

Hand washing clothes
    allows the mind to remember
    cleaning hands, heart and soul.

— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
I got two books finished since my last mailing. Train Your Mind – Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley with a forward by the Dalai Lama. I like books that teach me some science and make me think.
Banker to the Poor – Micro-lending and The Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus is an inspiring book that is easy to read and worth reading.

MOMENT MINISTRIES
July 9, 2008

home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org


REPORT FROM HEADQUARTERS
We’ve been here on Puget Sound for going on 7 weeks now. We’ve had a few visitors with more announced and some others that have not yet declared their intentions.
We mentioned the Bland’s from Tempe a couple of weeks ago.
Max, our 15-year-old grandson came to stay for two weeks. His absence is a loss to neighbor boys. He’s the magnet for adventures and long firesides with cocoa, hot dogs and s’mores.
We had Karen here a couple of times. Lauren’s been here. Paul and Mary Pritchard made it for a weekend, along with Max’s friend, Stephan. Even grandson Kyle came up from Portland where he has a new job already after graduating from the University of Oregon.
At one time we had all three bunkhouses occupied. That doesn’t happen often. Even so, there was still room for more.

   
MORE COMING

Jerry Burd and his grandson are flying in from New Mexico to spend a couple of days. He’s escaping his winery before the busy harvest and crush season begins. We haven’t seen him for several years. One of the joys of our summers here is being able to offer a time away and a time of reunion for friends and relatives from afar.
   
WHAT HAPPENS?

We don’t have a camp schedule, so people sleep when they want and eat breakfast and lunch as they wish. Food, kitchen and everything is available 24/7, which the young people especially like. We try to have an evening “happy hour” and gathered supper.
We try to limit camp maintenance to the morning. Afternoons are free for reading, beach time, play and sailing. We try to leave some wood to split or other tasks for those who like to help.
 We do get the Tacoma paper which tends to sober us a bit. Tacoma is near Fort Lewis, home of the Stryker Brigade. We get news of troops departing and returning. It reminds us that we are involved in a war that has tragic consequences for all involved. I have noticed, however, that there are as many, if not more, reports of  terror-like killings and drive-by shootings and violent activities on the streets of America as there are in the streets of Baghdad.

   
CONTACT

Everyone coming here these days seems to have a cell phone. Most check email either on their fancy cell phones or on our lap-top. It’s a far cry from days when we didn’t even have electricity. We like to stay in touch with friends and family away as well as good neighbors here on the beach. We take time to read personal messages and answer as soon as possible. We’re always glad to know what’s going on among those we know.

 
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PLASTICITY
       I’ve been thinking about plastic recently. Stores are outlawing plastic bags. We’ve been using cloth bags for a while now. Then our grandson comes to camp with newly acquired technical knowledge about cell phones and computers and other things we haven’t quite caught up with. Among other things he’s been educating us on plastic. For one thing he “outlawed” our special plastic water bottles. “Even REI won’t sell those anymore, Grampa!
       Meanwhile out on my boat – also made of plastic fiberglass by the way – I’ve been reading a book about the brain: “Train your Mind – Change your Brain.” It’s a thoughtful book written by Sharon Begley, science editor for the Wall Street Journal. It has a forward by the Dalai Lama.
       I won’t review the book except to say that it reports a new tack (I am, after all, reading on my sailboat!) in neuroscience. It has a new word to describe the new thought: “Plasticity.” The study of this science is called “Neuroplasticity.”
       I love it when I know a word that my spell-check doesn’t. It lit up right away when I wrote neuroplasticity. It means that the neurons in our brains are “plastic,” that there is more going on with them than previously thought. It means that brain damage can be worked around, and lots of other things. In fact, Columns, the University of Washington alumni magazine that most of you do not qualify to receive, tells of a faculty member whose MacArthur 'Genius" Grant Award is being use to help the brain operate prosthetic arms and legs. The brain can adapt to this kind of work she says.
       So I celebrate this emerging science that discovers what the Dalai Lama already knew: that the brain can be trained. Hail neuroplasticity!
       Having nothing better to do with my ever plastic brain I thought of a couple of other words about plasticity. Add this to words you won’t find on your spell check: “Politicoplasticity.”
       Can politicians and politics change as is hoped by many? Is it destined that our political positions are locked in perpetual unchangeable atrophy somewhere in some lobe of our brain? What would happen if we actually used our minds to train our brains to work around concrete barriers to create new routes? I was reading a book (Banker to the Poor) by a guy named Yunus who has established the Grameen Bank to loan interest free money to the poorest of poor. He’s done billions of dollars of such loans. The barrier he has to break down with politicians, relief agencies and bankers is the notion of a “trickle down economy.” It is an idea that does not work. Nothing trickles down to the poor. Alas. He argues for what I label “politicoplasticity.” Those in political power need a major brain change with regard to the poor. We need to elect people with flexibility – plasticity.
       There is still another plasticity that I call “religioplasticity.” Whamo! There goes my spell-check again. But you might want to add that word to your vocabulary list. What is killing us world wide is lack of religious plasticity in the world. Those of one set mind are a major road block to progress in the world. I like what the Dalai Lama said about Buddhism:
In Buddhism scriptural authority cannot outweigh an understanding based on reason and experience.
       Try to find that plasticity in Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Mormon religions. What hope is there when the major religious player’s brains are locked into a mindless adherence to “revelation” passed down from another era?
       I’m not using plastic bags if I can help it. My grandson has thrown out our plastic drinking bottles. But I’m trying to remind my mind that my brain still has plasticity in case there’s something new I need to learn or something out of date that I need to change. In case you are adapting this for a sermon (as I’ve heard some preachers have done) the text is from Romans:
…Be transformed by the renewal of your minds.
─ Art Morgan, July 9, 2008