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Let’s Talk About Shit

April 6, 2018 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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So I am reading an excellent book if a slow read, “The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters” by Rose George.

It’s bizarre shit is considered a curse or bad word when it is such an important function of our bodies.

Often considered shameful and something to do in private.

But, it’s incredibly important. Safe places to go lead to cleaner water, lead to less disease, more education, better lives.

Chapter 8 in the book is titled “Open Defecation-Free India”. It’s an important if challenging goal in a nation of a billion people which includes some very wealthy people and a lot of very poor people.

In fact worldwide according to this UNICEF piece: “On the brink of the 21st century, half the world’s people are enduring a medieval level of sanitation. Almost 3 billion individuals do not have access to a decent toilet, and many of them are forced to defecate on the bare ground or queue up to pay for the use of a filthy latrine. This unconscionable degradation continues despite a fundamental truth: Access to safe water and adequate sanitation is the foundation of development. For when you have a medieval level of sanitation, you have a medieval level of disease, and no country can advance without a healthy population.”

And it can be a challenge to move from open defecation, which can be considered normal to toilets which people aren’t used to. And if there isn’t community support the move can fail, even with large subsidies.

One more successful model is from Indian agricultural scientist Kamal Kar who wen to Bangledesh and wondered not how to get subsidies but. “Let’s find out instead why people are shitting in the bush.” (George, 187). On the same page he bluntly states “You can’t be a doctor and be scared of blood, and you can’t work in sanitation and be scared of shit. Anyone, no one understands you when you say sanitation.”

So instead of a top down approached he worked for Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). Which works for community support to work for 100 percent of people using toilets and clean sanitation rather than the major dangers of open defecation.

A lot of times in India there would be subsidized latrines that weren’t used. When CLTS people showed people what they were doing outside their villages and towns and how much shit was involved, things changed. Disgust is powerful. Seeing flies go between shit and food and water. Seeing the smells, realizing how much shit can be involved.

It’s powerful and far less expensive than a lot of clean water projects we work for. Unfortuntely if these projects get taineted by poor sanition and human waste the water is dirty again. And also having a cleaner place and having water access can allow people to worry less about their basic needs. In another part of the chapter (182), they stalk about how children’s attendance shoots up in school because they are sick less often and how school attendance can go from 10% to 80% for girls in one town. It’s just fascinating stuff and incredibly important.

Fascinating book and incredibly important chapter. I hope we work for cleaner toilets. Which includes more access to public bathrooms in the United States. And also better access for all, which can include unisex toilets especially when there is simply a toilet and a sink.

It shouldn’t be so hard sometimes in places like New York City to find a clean place to go.

And it really matters.

Shit is important. Having it be disposed of cleanly is incredibly important.

And as of 2014 still, “just under half of India’s total population — 595 million people — do not use a toilet.” We can and must do better.

Filed Under: No Filter, The Ecq Review

Celebrity Detox ***1/2

January 23, 2017 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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I flew through Rosie O’Donnell’s book “Celebrity Detox.” I read 90% of it yesterday and finished it today.

She decided to decline fifty million dollars and quit her talk show.

She wanted to spend time with family.

She knew she had enough, and needed balance.

And she even started a business with cruises for gay families.

The book talks a lot about her experiences in a year working for “The View.”

I understand very well now why she isn’t in the public spotlight.

And hearing her side of her ridiculousness with Donald Trump, makes me wonder even more if he can be an effective president.

To be all up in a tizzy from a six minute segment on the View, which I found through the magic of YouTube is so incredibly sad. I have no idea how someone who gets all riled up from this can deal with the challenges of being President of the United States.

It’s a very good book, a super fast read and I am so happy Rosie O’Donnell found balance in her life. May we all learn to have enough.

Filed Under: books, No Filter, The Ecq Review

“Basho In Ireland” by Billy Collins

January 18, 2017 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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I do enjoy Billy Collins’ work. He is probably one of the most popular poets out there with Mary Oliver, whose work especially “Dog Songs” and “Blue Horses” I really enjoy.

This is from his last collection “The Rain in Portugal: Poems.”

Basho in Ireland

I am like the Japanese poet
who longed to be in Kyoto
even though he was already in Kyoto.

I am not exactly like him
because I am not Japanese
and I have no idea what Kyoto is like

But once, while walking around
the Irish town of Ballyvaughan
I caught myself longing to be in Ballyvaughan.

The sense of being homesick
for a place that is not my home
while bring right in the middle of it

was particularly strong
when I passed the hotel bar
then the fluorescent depth of a laundrette,

also when I stood at the crossroads
with the road signs pointing in 3 directions
and the enormous buses making the turn.

It might have had something to do
with the nearby limestone hills
and the rain collecting on my collar,

but then again I have longed
to be with a number of people
while the two of us were sitting in a room

on an ordinary evening
without a limestone hill in sight,
thousands of miles from Kyoto

and the simple wonders of Ballyvaughan,
which reminds me
of another Japanese poet

who wrote how much he enjoyed
not being able to see
his favorite mountain because of all the fog.

—————————-

It’s strange how memory and longing work.

How certain places can feel like home even when they are not.

And others can feel not home even when they are.

I really loved this poem and wanted to share it.

Filed Under: No Filter, poetry

2016: A Reading Year in Review

December 30, 2016 by rurugby 1 Comment

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I thought since in 2017 in about 29 hours I would do a year end review of reading.

This week I finished two books, the outstanding and hilarious “The Importance of Being Ernest” by Ernest Cline **** and the good, if unneeded end to Colleen Hoover’s Slammed Series “This Girl.” ***

I am up to 73 books on Goodreads for the year, and I have probably re-read another dozen books or so, so let’s call it around 85.

Another neat picture, I wish I knew how to embed this. Includes my five star books highlighted.

Here are the five star Goodreads books I have read in 2016

1. The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe (re-read/essay):

I flew through this again for the fourth time or so on the train ride to NYC.

Then I went to the Museum of Modern Art and saw some of the art the critics loved so much.

I think some of it isn’t as lionized as it once was.

And I do happen to like abstract expressionism. I’m surprised how little sold.

I will say the 1960s floor of MOMA wasn’t close to as impressive as the 1890-1959 floor.

A book I really enjoy and I do think critics to a great extent did help create a lot of art. True in poetry in the post World War II era too I think. I’m glad poetry got spoken word to get out of overthought poetry by professors.

2. The Importance of Being Ernest by Ernest Cline (poetry):

I just flew through this one. I read most of it while laughing uproariously at a Chinese Buffet for Christmas with my family. So much fun and something I probably should have bought a while ago. I’ve loved “Geek Porn Auteur” and “Dance Monkeys Dance” for a long time and loved him novel “Ready Player One.”

He’s also part of the power poetry couple of geeky goofery with maybe my favorite modern poet the hilarious and awesome Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz. I know he has moved on to novels but would love some more geeky poems. Great Christmas present!

3. How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler’s Memoir by Amber Dawn (poetry/memoir):

Beautiful, honest, raw writing. I think there are so many more great tales of sex workers out there.

I will admit to liking the prose more than the poetry but just outstanding. And amazingly honest.

… I feel like I should say more about this one. Great memoir can be magic.

4. The Whore of Akron: One Man’s Search for the Soul of LeBron James by Scott Raab (memoir/sports):

Amazing, crazy, profane book.

This goes into being Jewish, from Cleveland, addiction, madness and the odd loyalty of being a die hard sports fan.

I am a Philadelphia sports fan, and the Phillies winning a World Series made me happy, but I am happy that I am not this connected to sports.

It would just be so exhausting. Wonderful, crazy gonzo writing that isn’t everyone with lots of sexual references.

And the Decision really was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous sports shows ever.

I’m glad LeBron came back to Cleveland in 2004 and finally got the city a championship in 2016 from a 3-1 comeback.

I also highly recommend the ESPN #30For30 documentary “Believeland” which does include Scott Raab. The city really desperately needed a championship after all that heartbreak.

5. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Definitely processing.

Race and whiteness themselves are strange concepts.

How is being white better?

Why does America think of itself as so exceptional?

Why do we allow such racist policing?

I really hope things get saner and better in our country. It has to happen. Things are bad now. But thete is so much wealth, and so many people want to make the world better. Powerful book.

… After Donald Trump is elected, I worry about these themes and questions even more.

6. MiXED NUTS or What I’ve Learned Practicing Psychotherapy by Rick Cormier

We need more therapists like Rick Cormier. Giving, humorous, and always trying to help their patients anyway they can.

I also gave it to my friend who is a new LCSW and a therapist and she was very impressed.

I love how grounded and relatable the stories are. Like the person with two clocks with rotating minutes who had to stop between the first and second clock every minute. Simple solution? Take one clock out of the room. Or using practicing deep breathing and lists to help people with panic attacks. Or that hypnosis can help people with their fears.

I will admit I have bipolar disorder and I haven’t found many therapists or psychiatrists I would like. Some are just their for diagnosis. A lot of therapists fall into the “well what do you think?” trap. I think I would like Rick Cormier.

Outstanding book.

.. He is a friend I knew from drum circles a bit in Maine and a heck of a nice guy and I am sure great therapist.

7. Love the Dog by Sharon Creech (not my first read/Children’s/Poetry):

Such a sweet little book. It’s not the first time I’ve read it.

Would love to see more book written with poems like this.

The only other author I can think of that does it is Ellen Hopkins.

8. Real Artists Have Day Jobs: (And Other Awesome Things They Don’t Teach You in School) by Sara Benincasa (Self-Help/Hilarious):

An absolutely fabulous book I expect to come bsck to again and again.

Great chapters about radical overconfidence, asking for exactly what you want, to stop apologizing, doing things anyway despite what you are bad at.

Making art like a kid. realizing artists have day jobs and are still artists etc.

I definitely need to get rid of stuff, be more confident and go for more things

The world needs more strong, hilarious women and we can all use the quote she uses from Sarah Hagl, “Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.”

… I have also gone through this again at least in pieces. Wonderful read.

And my book of the year goes to:

9. Madness: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher (memoir/mental illness)

Brilliant book but very hard to read for me.

I have bipolar disorder as well and this brought me back to manias in the past.

It also makes me very happy for my relative stability. I didn’t have bulimia, alcoholism or workaholicism.

And I have been to the hospital three times, not many, many times.

All blessings to those living with major mental illness.

… Nothing has come close to me for what it feels like to be manic. Such a visceral book.

And besides re-reading “The Painted Word” and “Love That Dog” and putting them in my Goodreads for the year (neither was in it already) other five star re-reads include: “A Man Without A Country” by Kurt Vonnegut which I have re-read every year since I have bought it maybe 6-7 years ago. This review includes some quotes. My most read book this year the graphic novel “Daytripper” which I finally bought this year. The excellent graphic novel and the Ku Klux Klan and the blues “BB Wolf and the Three LPs” by JD Arnold.

It’s been a good year of reading. Two things that helped were having a patio table to read outside and just bring books outside and let the cellphone stay inside. And getting reading glasses, it makes a huge difference to just have +0.50 on my prescription so I can read the small print better, my guess is this goes up over the years. I am only 42 now.

Filed Under: books, FridayReads, No Filter, reading, The Ecq Review

Star Wars: Rogue One ***

December 17, 2016 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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I am keeping this spoiler free for y’all so not going to say too much.

I will say I was disappointed and there were parts of it that definitely surprised me.

A lot of interesting characters, and tied into the main Star Wars line but different.

It would be my third least favorite Star Wars movie ahead of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

I do want to say more but I really know people are planning to see it in the next few weeks.

It’s possible that “Rouge One: The Story of Estee Lauder” might be have a better movie.

And I think it might be the 4th new movie I saw this year in the theater, I think I saw Force Awakens ***1/2, Deadpool **, Captain America: Civil War **1/2, Dr. Strange ***, all big money properties from Disney with Marvel and Star Wars. And I did like Dr. Strange more than Rogue One.

It’s going to be fun to have a Star Wars movie every year. I do hope the Han Solo movie is better than this one.

Filed Under: No Filter, The Blog

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