The December Blizzard

In case you haven’t heard or weren’t here to experience it, the day after Christmas, New York City and the surrounding area had a blizzard. It was my first in the City as well as my first in the Northeast. It was mind-boggling how fast it came. The City got just over 20 inches with some surrounding areas buried under up to 32 inches. On top of that, the blizzard conditions caused drifts four or five feet deep in some places. There are people who still haven’t shoveled their home’s doorways free of snow to allow doors to open.

Nature and the power of the weather are mind-boggling. More powerful than anything we humans are able to construct, build, design or even dream of. Here in New York big snows are not rare. It is to be expected. You would think New Yorkers would be prepared. This was the 6^th greatest snow accumulation in New York history but there was one even larger last February. I watch cars slip, slide, get stuck and still have not seen chains, snow tires or many who know how to drive in this stuff. Cars were abandoned all over the area. These abandoned cars block streets and prevent snow plows from doing their job.

Now the local news is covering nothing but the ranting and raving of locals who are blaming Mayor Bloomberg for their inability to get around in the snow. Secondary and tertiary roads are not all plowed and clean as a whistle for their convenience. As powerful as he is, the mayor of this city or any other city is not powerful enough to control snowfall, wind, floods and other weather phenomena. They didn’t campaign based on that nor did we elect them based on their ability to control the weather or its results. It seems the new mantra of this country is the blame game. It seems we are constantly looking for someone to blame. This is mind-boggling. Yes, there are weather caused inconveniences and critical situations that happen in the Northeast and most other places. We do have to live with such challenges and they can’t always be fixed immediately as we desire. The blame game doesn’t help.

Another possible contributing factor in this situation, to take a political view, is that New York City has had to lay-off 400 City employees. The downturn in the economy and the influence of the Tea Party and the Republicans will continue to cause further essential services to disappear. This is what many voted for: A balanced budget and the reduction of the deficit. The cutting of essential services will continue. Pardon me for repeating myself but this is mind-boggling to me. Wanting all the services possible but not wanting to pay for them.  As they say, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

Stan the Man 

Acceptance has Mind-Boggling Results

Christmas is a good time to return to the subject of values. This blog has touched on values at several junctures. Why do values have a place on a blog about mind-boggling phenomena? Well, my experience working with clients throughout my 40+ year career as a therapist has taught me that those individuals and families with clear values and who use their values as sign posts for their behavior do better over the long haul. The results may be mind-boggling. Even with clear values we will continue to get off track. Values provide our sign-posts for getting back on track. A lack of clear values will make our lives more of a struggle.

The first five values that appear critical to me (perhaps you have others) are peacefulness, attentiveness, contribution, resilience and acceptance. Currently, at Christmas it seems that acceptance is particularly important to think about. What does acceptance means?

Acceptance means embracing all cultures, religions and lifestyles and working to reduce the boundaries between such entities. After all, we do all have commonalities. We all are human and we all live on this Earth. Because a country or culture lives differently or a religion believes differently should not mean we have to set out to reject or change them.

Acceptance means we understand everyone is doing the best they are able to in their present conditions. Individuals and cultures have obstacles to overcome that are unique to them. We need to have an understanding attitude towards others and their struggles. Acceptance means we have positive regard for others. It also means we make an effort to see the strengths of others rather than just their weaknesses.

Finally, acceptance of others is much more difficult if we don’t accept ourselves. We need to accept our own strengths and weaknesses and know we are doing the best we can at any given time. Perhaps acceptance of our own mortality is part of this. It is, after all, our ultimate weakness.

Diametrically opposed to acceptance are rejection, close-mindedness and bigotry. If we are able to move away from those characteristics and behaviors and toward the value of acceptance the results can be mind-boggling. To make a few steps in that direction we gave our money to Habitat for Humanity http://www.habitat.org/ this year instead of spending it on un-needed and unwanted gifts. One small thing but hopefully it will make a difference.

Stan the Man   

Creativity of Nature

Wind, scientifically, is caused by natural atmospheric conditions. Barometric pressure gradients cause the air we breathe to rush from high pressure areas to low pressure areas. Scientific understanding doesn’t come close to explaining what I really know about the wind. Wind behavior is another mind-boggling phenomenon, as is my own: Often unpredictable and unexplainable. The difference, the wind has no conscience.

A windy day has a mind of its own. It is a free agent looking for the perfect route. In the desert the wind can run un-impeded for miles like a jack rabbit. It becomes a force that drives sand, tumbleweeds and anything else not tied down in front of it. Then the wind hits a mountain range, rises quickly, finds a break in the barrier and creates a wind tunnel for itself. Compressed by the tunnel the wind gains strength and speed bearing down on those who dare to occupy the space that the wind believes it owns. My wife and I lived and had a business in one of those spaces. The wind won. We vacated. Leaving our Arizona ranch we find ourselves in New York City.

The wind followed us. Windy days are the norm it seems. The weather forecast says northwest wind to 30 miles per hour. Again, the wind follows its own rules. The skyscrapers create a maze for the wind.  It uses creative techniques to get through in amazing ways. I walk into the northwest on Broadway.  The flags on the rooftops are standing straight out signaling a wind out of the northwest as predicted. Down here the wind is demonstrating its versatility and reversing its field. It is a tail wind for me pushing me into the Northwest. In fact, it seems the wind blows in all directions, a different direction each corner I round. I turn right and am hit in the face by an icy blast from the east. Any direction is possible down here in the canyons of frigid Manhattan.

It is mind-boggling how easily nature adapts to man-made structures.

Stan the Man

Christmas Cookies....

It's mind-boggling how generations become the next...years slip by and suddenly you are at the age you believed "old".  You know that age your grandparents were, once upon a time, now long gone...and now you are in line for that too if you live long enough.

Holidays seems to mark that time in memories of past celebrations and rituals, reminiscing bygone days. Special times stand in my memory of moments during Christmas cookie baking with my grandmother, mother and children over the years, those special red cookie cutters that even as a child held me spellbound with cookies of wreaths, reindeer and sleighs.  I revisited that with my own grandchildren at our ranch in Arizona when I decided it was time to pass on those red cookie cutters to the next generation.  It's mind-boggling that I still love those wonderful iced sugar cookies in Christmas designs-still yummy after all these years!

This year,Stan the Man and I, enjoyed a very special holiday, taking Kim and Adam, two of my now middle aged offspring, to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular!  Wow, over the top, better than Christmas cookies, it truly was spectacular!!  So now we may have a new Christmas ritual in the years to come, less calories than those Christmas cookies, but what fun to share some of the incredible NYC glitz and glamour!!

I am left thinking of my mother who passed on the red cookie cutters to me in a special moment that I hold dear.  Now she is in a nursing home, in a world other than the present, perhaps enjoying her childhood all over again and Christmas cookies baking in the oven.

Katherine the Great

Brrrrrr, its cold!

It’s mind-boggling how cold December in New York City can be. This year winter has come early and the temperature is running 12 to 15 degrees below normal in early December. That means a temperature of 32 to 35 degrees. Add to that a 35 mile per hour gusty wind out of the North and we have a wind chill factor in the teens. I refuse to allow the weather conditions to deter me from my 4 to 5 mile daily walk. I bundle up and wait until the heat of the day, 35 degrees and the wind-chill is up to 22.

So I’m walking down Church Avenue past ground zero as fast as I can, dodging the multitude of tourists, shoppers and financiers. The biting wind makes my eyes water like leaking faucets. The sun, low in the south blinds me. Wait, something’s wrong. I take my trifocal, transition glasses off to wipe tears out of my eyes and place them back on my nose. My vision becomes distorted. Everything is blurry and looks weird. I reach up with my gloved finger to touch the left lens of my glasses and jam my finger directly into my eye. There is no glass. The lens has disappeared. It must have fallen out. I turn and retrace my steps for a couple blocks. Nothing. It’s gone.

An hour later I find myself at an optical office in the Financial District that my wife has guided me to. “I need a new lens for my glasses.” I say. He calls the optometrist in Washington State to secure the prescription. The voice mail says he’s gone hunting for the next ten days. I make an appointment to see the doctor here. He’ll be in on Friday, four days away. My old pair of prescription glasses will have to do until then but they’re already making me sick to my stomach and nauseas. Oh well, nothing I can do except wait until Friday and then 3-5 days more days for the prescription lens to arrive.

Standing at the counter chatting with the clerk we talk of the cold weather. He relates “this is a new kind of weather for New York City. The climate has changed. Nobody wears sweaters anymore. There’s no sweater weather but only hot and then cold.” Mind-boggling I think. I’m standing in front of him sweating inside my turtle neck sweater, vest sweater, my bulky ski sweater and an Eddie Bauer Fleece sweater- jacket on top of that. I’ll be glad I have all these layers of sweaters on when I venture back outside. On the street everyone is dressed like my wife in Bulky, long, heavy, black coats. Perhaps I need to change my style of dress or maybe I’ll just go to Miami for the winter as soon as I take delivery on my new left tri-focal, transition lens.      

Time Traveling to Christmas.

It is a truly mind-boggling phenomena. Seems like we just got done with a sweltering summer in New York City and time rushes forward. We're done with Fall, Thanksgiving, my birthday and suddenly Christmas is upon us. It seems to happen faster each year. It is mind-boggling. Each year everything seems to flash by more rapidly. Are the years getting shorter? Of course, each year I move a little slower.

In order to acknowledge the on-rushing arrival of Christmas, Katherine the Great and I enjoyed the Christmas Tree lighting the other night. It was cold, it felt like winter but was a heartwarming event. Great music, marching bands, Santa Claus and much more. New Yorkers love crowds and it was evident the crowd loved this event. Their expressions and body language said everything. This was not the well-known Christmas Tree lighting at Rockefeller Center which is broadcast on TV. This was a Lower Manhattan event at Seaport. It didn't matter. New York knows how to put on exciting events and New Yorkers know how to enjoy them!
Stan the Man