remember that neighborhood dog around the corner that I was blogging about early in the year?  I haven’t given an update on him for so long so this posting is long overdue. 

Around June, I saw Max outside of the stairwell for the first time.  He was on a walk with his owner and I could tell his arthritis had gotten really bad.  I have been in touch with another dog-lovin’ woman,  who visited Max everyday to feed him, give him glucosamine for his arthitis, and say hello.  I felt so much better knowing that other people were also watching out for him. 

About a week after my dear Sequoia passed over to the other side, Max also passed away.  Someone told us he was put to sleep because he could barely walk.  I thought it was the right thing and right time to do it.  For the last few weeks of his life, he couldn’t even get up to say hello to me, like he usually does. 

I am so glad he is free from pain and in a happier place, where he can roam free and where he is surrounded by love whereever he goes.

I apologize in advance: I need to indulge in writing this posting, in hopes that my Brad Pitt party will end soon.  For those who know me, I am clearly not a fan of Hollywoodies or have the slightest interest in the lives of these amazingly beautiful people we see on the movie screen.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Brad perhaps because I don’t want to add more attention to his stardom but ever since I watched Benjamin Button, I became interested in knowing what this guy is all about and his coupling with Angelina.

What I find most interesting about him and Angelina, beyond the fact that they are one of the most beautiful couples in Hollywood (beautiful people dating other beautiful people is actually a little disturbing to me), is that she has awakened in him the energy to perform humanitarian and environmental work.  I’m not sure what his history of charity was before Angelina but it clearly never radiated as it does now.  I think that is what is truly beautiful about this pair, that they really bring out the best in eachother.  This is the energy that I feel when I hear about them, not the information that I gather from magazines.

I just saw him on the Chronicle today with Nancy Pelosi to promote his new foundation to sustainably build New Orleans (www.makeitrightnola.org). He’s partnered up with William McDonough, the brain behind Cradle to Cradle design, to build eco-friendly and sustainable homes for those displaced by New Orleans.  This is only his most recent work; he’s contributed to many other causes previously.

I think it’s so inspiring to see people use their power for good causes, rather than to promote themselves or what I call celebrity materialism.  And doing a little bit of research on him makes it easier for me to reconcile my natural discomfort with movie stars.  Disregarding their personal power and the circle of paparazzis that they carry around, celebrities like Brad are perhaps just normal people like the rest of us.

I just found out about this research opportunity a few days ago– and it’s due on March 9th!  $25,000 to carry out whatever project you would like, in your field of study.  Mine is Environmental Science and Southeast Asian Studies.

I am trying to build a proposal on environmental work in Vietnam– but confused and perplexed by the many possiblities (ie. wildlife trafficking, water quality, coal mining, etc).  I have also lost touch with the few contacts that may have been helpful in generating some ideas– so I need your input if you have any.
Gerard has agreed to be my mentor for the project and would like me to incorporate his EAP students to help out with it.  Any inspiration to offer me?

Stronach Award: http://ls.berkeley.edu/?q=node/212/

Hi everyone,

Sorry it took so long for me to update what’s been going on what Max.  The truth is:  not much has happened, despite the organized efforts between a few people to help him and several dialogues with his family in the last month.  It’s been made clear that the family does not want anyone to take their dog out for walks, even when someone from Animal Control has offered to give names of volunteers.  What’s also evident but more subtle is that the family does care about Max and probably would not give him up, if someone offered to buy him (like I have done before).  The family claims to take Max out for walks “sometimes in the morning” (although I’m not convinced) and feels that this is appropriate.

There really has been efforts from different people to open up a more honest dialogue with his family, but nothing apparent has changed.  I have ideas of how people can continue pressuring the family to provide daily exercise for their dog, which is required by Berkeley law…but wanted to hear what you have to say first!  Please send suggestions and your thoughts my way.

And remember: If you do pass by Sacramento and Prince St, please say hello to Max.

Thanks for all of your words of advice and concern.  I found someone who is helping me with this situation.  I will update you as news comes!

To my friends who are particularly animal lovers,

Here is a short story long on a neighborhood dog who I love and is asking for some attention and help.  Do you have words of counsel on this situation?  Do you have ideas on how I should be approaching this?  Or most importantly, do you want to help me in anyway to help this dog?

Meeting Max

One afternoon, Mike, comes home after taking our husky, Sequoia, for a walk.

“Hey, I found this dog around the corner, who lives in this family’s stairwell,” he tells me.
“What do you mean he lives in the stairwell?” I asked, curiously.

“He sleeps on this platform, that leads up to some apartment units.  I feel really bad for him,” Mike replies with sympathy.

A few days later, we take a walk to the corner where the stairwell dog is.  He is a German Shepherd with ears that are too big for his face.  He barks at us, perhaps because he smells Sequoia.  Mike reaches through the bars to scratch him on the head.  The place reeked of dog urine and dirt so I watch him from a distance.  There was nothing enticing about this dog–not his smell nor his heavy barking.

A few weeks later, I pass by him again, with Sequoia on a leash.  I pause to say hello to him.  He barks for a moment and then lays his head by the bar so I can pet him.  He is eager for physical contact, I can sense it as he rubs his head into my palm.  He has soft eyes and a gentle touch.

I look around his living area–a small bowl for his food, a raggedy round pillow as his bed cushion and feces hanging around the bottom part of the stairs.  Underneathe the stairs is a plastic dog house.  It looks unappealing to sleep there, right by where he does his business.  He chooses sleeps on his dirty pillow, which has been slept on for so long, it has lost all of his cushion.  I feel bad for him, knowing that every time I have passed by him, he stays in the stairwell and doesn’t seem to get taken out for walks.  Nor have I ever seen his owners socializing with him.

I tell Mike later that night that my heart has opened up to this dog and we have to help him.  I wasn’t sure how he could be helped, who takes care of him, or anything else about the dog.  But I was sure that he isn’t living in fair conditions, and he deserves more than living out in the cold because he is a loving and sweet animal.

Weeks pass by and I go say hi to the dog more frequently, once a day if I can remember.  Mike and I like to go to the liquor store across the street and buy a pack of cheese for him.  He is always very eager for treats when we come by.  I end up giving him Sequoia’s dog bed so he can be warmer at night.

One night, we went by to visit him and saw that a young woman was also there, saying hello to him.  We told her that we came to say hi to the dog, too.  She says that she goes to see him twice a day.

“Do you know who his family is?” we ask her.

“It’s the family that owns this record store.  A man and his grown-up kids.” she says.  “Are they friendly?”

“They are polite but not very friendly.  I asked the man once if I could take the dog out for walks but he said no.  It seems like he is here as a guard dog,” she says.  People in the neighborhood are particularly scared of big dogs like so it wasn’t a surprise.

We learned that his name is Max and that other people have been paying attention to him, too.  The woman said that she and other neighbors have asked Animal Control to check him out.  They always say that he’s not in bad enough condition to take him away.

The news was disappointing– two of the possible things we could do to help the dog has failed in the past.  Later that week, I decide to call up Animal Control again.

“Oh, you mean the dog on Sacramento Street, the shepherd?” the operator asked.  “He’s actually fine.  We’ve gotten many many calls about him and we’ve done about 20 checks on him.  He’s always got food and water.  The owner says he takes him out at night… I don’t choose to house my dog like that but there’s nothing we can do for him.” I try to argue that many times when I’ve crossed by, he doesn’t have food or water, and that his den is often filthy.  She insists that he’s okay and I give up.

I contact animal rescue organizations and they tell me to try to convince the owner to give him up.  One morning, I write a note on an index card, asking the folks if they are thinking of selling their dog.  If so, we love Max and would love to buy him.  Here’s our number.

No response.

Mike and I came to the conclusion it wouldn’t be a good idea for strangers to talk to them about their dog’s bad living conditions. We needed to find neighbors who were friends with Max’s family.  We talked to a good number of people and learned the history of the family and Max.

The family has been in that corner building since 1993, and so has the dog.  Max was supposedly a “vicious dog” and he would’ve “tore you apart” when he was younger.  People recount that he’s been living in that stairwell for the last 15 years, and none of our neighbors have ever seen him go for walks of any sort.  Not many of our closest neighbors are good friends with the family but they encouraged us to just go and talk to them.

The other day, I planned an excursion to go into the record store, make a purchase and sneak in a conversation about the dog. “We live on the other side of the block and we’ve been meaning to ask your family if we can take your dog out for walks when we take our dog out,” I asked this younger woman who was working at the time.

She said that her father takes the dog out every morning to the Marina at 5am and insists that he’s doing just fine. Afterwards, we told our neighbors about this conversation and they said that she was lying.  No one has ever seen the dog leave that place.

Mike and I have not bolstered up the courage to go and talk to the woman’s father.  Her father is a older man with a stern  demeanor.  Mike is almost certain that he will just say no to us.  I, on the other hand, am too nervous to talk to someone about something that is so close to the heart.  I also do not want to cause too much commotion about it because I live too closely to him and don’t want to risk neighborly tensions.  The most we have done recently is buy him a fleece coat to help keep him warm at night.

It breaks my heart to see such a dog like him be stuck in this place for the remainder of his life.  My deepest desire is to get him out of there and find  a loving family for him, which may end up being our family if Sequoia approves. Taking him out for walks may only the short term solution to give him some fresh air and exercise.

But there’s no way us strangers can convince a family we’re too fearful to talk to give him up or even let us take him for walks.

Any ideas or know anyone who can help? He is on the southeast corner of Sacramento and Prince St. in South Berkeley, outside of Reid’s Record Store, if you want to befriend him.

FINALLY- tomorrow is the day millions of us have been awaiting.  I thought I should take a few minutes to share some of my views on tomorrow’s ballot.  My opinions are a result of many months of newspaper-mongering and radio talk-obsessing.  I’ll just highlight the ones that hit closest home.

PRESIDENT- “IT’S OBAMA TIME” -a daily recitation of my neighbor, Oliver.  No words can express my genuine trust in and admiration for Obama….so I’ll stop here.

US REPRESENTATIVE- BARBARA LEE.  I had the opportunity to chat with her in Washington DC a year ago.  I think she is an amazing woman with lots of experience and a commitment to bringing justice communities such as Darfur.

BERKELEY MAYOR- TOM BATES.  Honestly I don’t know much about Shirley, I’m sure she’s a wonderful woman.  But Tom’s been the mayor for a long time and has been working on really important sustainability and development issues in Berkeley.  I’d like for him to continue his work.  I also met him at an awards ceremony in SF and didn’t know he was the Berkeley mayor–so maybe I’m just voting for him cuz I feel guilty.

EB Regional Parks- “DOGS FOR WHITNEY DOTSON”!  Dog lovers are showing full support for Dotson so I decided to do the same!

PROPOSITIONS

1A: YES FOR 2 HOUR TRAIN RIDES TO LA

2: YES, YES, YES FOR GIVING ANIMALS MORE SPACE AND SOME HINT OF HUMAN DECENCY!!!

3: undecided, I have one more day…

4: NO NO NO ON PRIOR PARENTAL CONSENT

5: YES FOR DRUG REHAB

6: NO

7: NO, NO, NO!  ON A BADLY WRITTEN ENERGY POLICY

8: NO, NO, NO! ON TAKING AWAY SAME-SEX COUPLES RIGHTS

9: NO

10: NO ON ANOTHER BADLY WRITTEN ENERGY POLICY.  THIS ONE IS FULLY SUPPORTED BY THE NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY.

11: NO

12: YES

Check out SF Bay Guardian for information on the ballot and their endorsements:  http://www.sfbg.com/elections/fall2008/

Michael’s mom forwarded us an email today. I read it and it touched my heart so profoundly, I thought I would share it with everyone. It was written by a woman named Becky:

There is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Love,
God

What a beautiful reminder for us all- to love, love, and love unconditionally.

I went to Kevin’s yoga class today after not having gone in a while. The class let me practice what I call “Ego obedience”–a practice of keeping my eye on it and checking that it does not poking its head into my daily life situations. My yoga practice used to be dictated by my Ego: it praised me on how skilled I was in my poses, how focused I was in my savasana, how I practiced so diligently everyday. And most importantly, it reminded me how I was so much more of a yogi than others. It wasn’t until this year when I became aware of what I was doing when practicing yoga: I was merely feeding my Ego. I’ve gradually developed a new practice where Ego plays no role–where it’s okay to fall, it’s okay not to perform the most advanced pose, it’s okay to struggle (especially when people are watching). Yoga practice can reveal much about your true self, when you allow that gate to open. When you stop being enamored by the physical elements of yoga, a much deeper practice comes to life.

My yoga practice today allowed me to meditate on an instance that has been rattling me for a few days. Several days ago, I found myself in a very uncomfortable situation with someone I know. I wasn’t even certain of how this event arised but nonetheless, I tried to change the situation so that the discomfort would disappate, even if it meant letting myself get treaded on. The unresolved feelings ended up consuming me, my mind trying constantly to get a grip on what happened. I had to consult a guide of mine to figure out what was keeping me from letting go. He showed me that this is another game that the Ego likes to play–where it seeks self-preservation and therefore cannot let go of any situation that was threatening or uncomfortable. He let me know that although I still needed to resolve the feelings with this other person, I was capable of letting go. But my pride kept me from doing so. Instead my Ego chooses to play back the memory over and over again until I’m driven to near insanity! After I became conscious of my Ego’s role in this discourse, it became much easier for me to forgive and forget. The resolution, however, is pending.

Our Ego will keep on coming up again and again in everyone’s lives. Are you aware of it when it snarls its fangs? When life is getting difficult, is Ego playing a role? Can you go about life with humility but still maintain dignity (which is very different than pride/Ego)?

Keep in mind, Ego is only your enemy when you let it off its leash. When tamed, perhaps it can be a companion or most preferably, it will transform into a completely different energy that can actually bring positivity into your life.

Last night, I watched the film ‘The Five People You Meet In Heaven’ after reading the book last month.  It was the perfect novel to take with me during  my BART commute–until I reached the ending of the book and ended up in tears on a crowded train.  The movie made me cry for about an hour. 

I’m not a huge fan of realistic novels and this book started off a little dark and depressing, reminding me of how bleak people’s lives can really become.  It didn’t take long for me to sink into the story and pretty soon, it had a pretty tight grip on me.  I couldn’t relate much to the main character’s life story–he was an old man who couldn’t past through the hurdles of memory that he accumulated from a war.   He couldn’t pluck himself out of his life situation and dwindled in his despair.  On one hand, I have deep sympathy for people who find themselves in these deep pitholds; at the same time, I’ve become such a believer in taking control of your own fate, that I find myself wallowing in apathy, as I observe it. 

Eddie, the main character, dies early in the book and this itself is a profound teaching. Any of us can just die, disappear from this world any minute now–but we all plan our lives as if we are going to live as old as our 80-year-old grandmother.  Death is so real and it happens every second but to the still living, it’s an event that’s so far removed and too frightening to become intimate with.  The story made me remember how scared I am of dying and of the loved ones in my life dying.  I’m scared of dying in pain and fear; I’m scared of my family dying in pain and sadness.  I don’t want anyone to die, sad, hurt and lonely, but it happens.  My fears doesn’t seem to have reflected my experiences, however: I’ve had several close friends and family vanish from my life very suddenly–and for some reason I’ve never felt a lot of grief or sadness.  I’ve felt like they are still around but just in another form–and I guess it’s true.  Death is just a passing of the spirit from body to the heavens, their love and memory will always remain with those on Earth.  Maybe this lack of grief is not a sign that I am ungodly or unloving; but simply that maybe I can cope with death a lot better than I think I can. 

I like the idea that after passing over, you get the chance to resolve the kinks and knots of life.  I can only imagine that a small handful of people pass to heaven, with a clear and enlightened understanding of their life and its meaning.  I assume many people die, unclear about their life on Earth, with anger, sadness, pain.  It is assuring to think that for many spirits, passing over is a journey towards understanding and complete acceptance.