Frazzled

It is the middle of the fourth week of my bathroom's tear-down rebuild after water leakages over months. I have changed substitute quarters three times. Today at 5:55am EDT, on the 10th day in the third temporary dwelling, my morning began as I landed on the floor on my back alongside the unaccustomed, smaller, twin bed where I had been in deep sleep. Had I really rolled out of bed?! I was a kid the last time that happened. I lay there on my back. A forearm scrape bled much like childhood skinned knees. I couldn't get up. My knee replacements don't let me kneel to get up off the floor. I pressed my senior housing's alert button, which I wear on a lanyard to summon help. Time passed. The helpers first went to my apartment before determining I was in temporary quarters. The personnel helped me up and treated my scrape. 

It was disconcerting. I felt frazzled. 

The sky lightened. Soon the sun shone over the treetops in a clear blue sky.

Many, many people suffer from war. I had a frazzle. 

I am well. I am grateful. I will carry on.

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Obama said, "[Rev Jesse] Jackson’s life inspires us to take a harder path. His voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change, to be messengers of hope…. Wherever we have a chance to make an impact, whether it’s in our school or our workplaces or our neighborhoods or our cities, not for fame, not for glory, or because success is guaranteed, but because it gives our life purpose, because it aligns with what our faith tells us God demands, and because if we don’t step up, no one else will.” --from Heather Cox Richardson's Substack, March 7, 2026.

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Art Therapy

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"Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival. It takes two wings to fly. Whether you’re a hawk or a dove, you’re just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world."--Rev Jesse Jackson

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What on Earth?

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Overheard at the dentist:
“Since I don’t have as many teeth anymore,
do I get a discount?”

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I've been following the Monks Walking. While we wage age or go to our jobs, our schools, our movies, our houses of worship, our stores, 

wherever we are,

whatever we are doing

we can

  Wage Peace.

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Time to Transform

 

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He Showed Us How

"...because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is on the land; confusion all around...But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." *

MLK Jr.
A prophet in our time.

*MLKjr quoted this morning by Heather Cox Richardson.

What Are We Doing Here?

Four score and six.

Am I old?

Lincoln said, "Four score and seven"

at Gettysburg.

A lifetime, but not for those

who fell there.

On old movie screens,

calendar pages flutter by,

the story moves to a future date.

My calendar pages fluttered by

to this one,

my story today.

In the East, the sun rises

and goes down in the West,

rolling into night.

A day.

A night.

A gift.

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    In Charlie Mackesy's book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, the mole asked the boy, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

    The boy answered, "Kind."

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January 9, 1961...

"For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us — recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

First, were we truly men of courage — with the courage to stand up to one's enemies — and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one's associates — the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

Secondly, were we truly men of judgment — with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past — of our own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others — with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?

Third, were we truly men of integrity — men who never ran out on either the principles in which they believed or the people who believed in them — men who believed in us — men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Finally, were we truly men of dedication — with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest."

        --From JFK “City on a Hill” speech at the Mass. State House 11 days before his inauguration. (Also, quoted by Teresa Hanefin in Fast Forward, "Food for Thought")

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What are we doing here...

“You must not hate those who do harmful things. The compassionate thing is to do what you can to stop them—for they are harming themselves as well as those who suffer from their actions.” - The Dalai Lama (Also re-quoted from Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller)

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What's a Watt? Guess What!!!

What's a Watt (W)? 

    1 Watt = 1 unit of energy - the rate by which electricity is produced or used.

        A small LED bulb 💡 in the lamp by your bedside might use 10 Watts.

What's a Kilowatt (kW)?

    1,000 W = 1 kW

    What's a Kilowatt hour (kWh)?

    1 kW used for 1 hour = 1 kWh

    1 Kilowatt can power a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours

What's a Megawatt (MW)?

    1 MW = 1,000 kW = 1,000,000 W

    What's a Megawatt Hour (MWh)?

    1 MWh = 1,000 kWh 

    1 MWh can power an average USA home for about 6 weeks

What's a Gigawatt (GW)?

    1 GW = 1,000 MW (1 billion Watts) 

    What's a Gigawatt hour (GWh)?

    1 GWh = 1,000 MWh (1 million KWh)

    1 GWh can power an electric car for 3 million miles--around Earth 120 times!

Or...

What's a Terrawatt (TW)?

    1 TW = 1,000 GW (1 trillion Watts)

    What is a Terrawatt hour (TWh)?

    1 TWh = 1,000 GWh (1 billion kWh)

    1 TWh can power 100 million homes for an hour, or the world's data centers (that power the Internet) for about 15 days.

 Making Sense of Energy Units

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Okay...time for some Einstein...

One hundred four years ago, Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect in metal. This has driven the solar energy revolution along with quantum mechanics.

All kinds of work...work...work...

and one discovery after another, we arrive at... 

...1954, a practical solar ☀️ cell was born. Three guys at Bell Labs in New Jersey showed the world the first photovoltaic cell--sunlight charged a silicon cell and powered a small toy Ferris wheel and a solar-powered radio transmitter. They were Calvin Souther Fuller, Daryl Chapin, and Gerald Pearson. Within two years, the solar cell was appearing in consumer products. 

More work...work...work...

...discover, discover, discover...

68 years later...Guess What!!!

2022, the world installed 1 terrawatt of solar power.

2024, the world installed 2 terrawatts of solar power.

As I write or early 2026, 3 terrawatts will be installed worldwide.

Every 15 hours, a gigawatt of solar panels is activated. Battery storage capacities and varieties increase rapidly. 

Wind turbines follow closely behind solar. 

Q: Which countries are leap-frogging over combustion energy and installing solar?

Ans: 3rd World countries. 

    Example: Cheap Solar is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa

Where do the solar panels come from?

Ans: China

Museum of Solar Energy

4.6 Billion Years On, The Sun is Having a Moment

First Practical Silicon Solar Cell

I still have my solar-powered calculator purchased in 1986...

 

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

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