Epistolary Art

Well! I remarked to the young chap behind the counter, It’s one thing to buy postcards, and quite another to write and send them. He said in all seriousness, It’s good to keep up the epistolary arts. I said, The what!? So kindly he explained. Wrote down what it meant on a piece of paper, and here I am doing what I said I’d do. Write. But the postcards are yet to have the epistolary arts applied. Tomorrow?

That’s Berkeley for you. Educated everybody. Especially on Telegraph Avenue, in Moe’s Books (which is where the above exchange took place. A huge bookstore close to the University of California Campus. Apparently with connections back to those turbulent times in Berkeley in the 1960’s. I know at least one reader who was there at the time….

Moe’s Books was founded in 1959 by Moe Moskowitz and his wife Barbara, the original site of the store was a small shop on Shattuck just north of University Avenue. As the early 60s dawned, Moe moved his expanding operation to Telegraph Avenue, closer in to the hub of the UC campus. By that time UC Berkeley was about to explode into the national limelight as the focal point of the burgeoning Free Speech Movement. As the decade lunged forward and the Viet Nam War raged on, Moe’s Books found itself at the center of numerous confrontations with the Berkeley police and the National Guard. When local authorities called for city-wide curfews, Moe refused to close his doors, asserting that people should be free to walk the streets. When an occasional tear gas canister would roll down the sidewalk, many protesters sought refuge in Moe’s Books–one of the few safe havens willing to remain open during a time fraught with imminent danger. Clearly this was a revolutionary period in our history that defied comparison, and Moe’s Books under the fearless leadership of Moe Moskowitz, led by shining example.

Epistolary means: Written in the form of or carried on by letters or correspondence. Who would have thought buying a few postcards would lead to such and interesting word, a charming encounter and a hugely historic bookshop.

That was not the half of our shopping trip by any means. Berkeley Hats just down Telegraph from Moe’s is a hat fanciers heaven.

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Berkeley Hats, Telegraph Avenue Berkeley – from a moving car.
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Now there’s a hat to write home about!

The Depression – In Colour

Goodness what a find! Colour photographs from the Farm Security Administration collection taken during the depression in America in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Those photographic icons in black and white are joined by…well, go take a look and be disturbed. The whole set can be seen here. There are images here that are every bit as powerful as those B and W’s we know so well.

These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

From One Cool Thing A Day.

Walking By the Bay – China Camp Historic Area – San Rafael

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Out walking…
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saw this little creature – a lizard of sorts?
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thankfully there was shade from the burning heat…
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and restrooms , classic hut style too…

Phew, what a scorcher! At 5.30 pm in Berkeley it was registering 90 f. Earlier in the day the prior at Berkeley Buddhist Priory and I took a hike in a state park called China Camp at Point San Pedro, Marin County. Hard to believe this area, now deserted save for the mountain bikers, wild turkeys, critters and us, was once home to upwards of 500 souls. They were fisherman from China. Their catch, shrimp, was processed on site and…sent to China! Apparently the people of the Bay Area, at the time, didn’t eat shrimp. Of course all that changed, and so did the fortunes of the fishermen…unfortunately.

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With aid of Google Earth you can, hopefully, see why where I am is called the Bay Area.

While here I’ve been walking, sleeping, eating and working. As well as sitting and yesterday, celebrating Dogen Day. We recited Rules For Meditation.

For those who concern themselves about my well being, I’m well. Thanks.

Linking – Village Talk


This post is less about cats, although Simon’s Cat is super cute and worth watching, and more about…linking.

We all know some of the amazing coincidences that happen on the Internet. A random click here a comment there and before you know it you are discovering new and interesting things, finding or re-finding Internet friends and before long a blog post is forming out of the murk. Simon’s Cat, who Julie introduced to me months ago, came by accident this morning. This video made my smile and made a fellow monastic laugh out loud. Good for both of us on this fogged in East Bay morning.

But there is a downside of course. It’s all too easy to get sucked into the www and spend over long there. An opportunity to exercise the STOP reflex, no? Stop really does mean stop. All the same, wise use can be rewarding, instructive and at times uplifting. So, sticking with the linking theme. Yesterday was it, I linked to Reading Priory News about Renewal, Kevin in the Shetland Isles linked to my link and was stimulated to pondered on his blog, and it’s evolution. And then Robbie a Shetlander, now living over in Norway left a comment which reminded me of a photo Kevin pointed out to me, months ago, of a hut – in Norway – first posted on Robbie’s site. Here it is:

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Yes OK, I love huts and this one takes my particular fancy. Location great, trees a charming extra!

Really no big deal about this linking up business. And what happens on this far flung edge of the internet is small fry in comparison with when something goes viral, as the saying goes. That’s when some piece of news, or whatever, takes off and gets linked to and talked about all over the world. This is the world of the village chat, gone mad.

This is for Julie…who reminds me that villages can be, and in my experience, most often are, caring places.

Priory News – Reading – Renewal

The resident monk, Rev. Alicia, at Reading Buddhist Priory, Berkshire, UK is writing a regular news/blog. I await her weekly posts with happy anticipation. Perhaps some of my enthusiasm is because I was the resident monk there in the early 1990’s. Knowing for example Rev. Alicia has arranged for a plumber to install new taps (faucet’s) and that the new floor covering is down on the stairs brings me vicarious pleasure, even after all this time away. But there is more, much more, to these writings. There is teaching that comes through both overtly and through her talking about her day. This post on Renewal is a grand example of the teaching coming though. Here is an excerpt from this post as a taster.

Renewal is a different concept to rest. Renewal is a change of pace, time out from the usual routine of work, an opportunity to relax, yes, but in skillful ways that keep the training going and allow it to be expressed in other ways. It is a chance to ask ‘what would it be good to do that would renew/refresh me in mind and body?’

I have subscribed to the RSS Feed on this site. The link to the feed can be found at the bottom of the list in the left side-bar.

And if you look at my schedule you’ll see I’ll be staying a few nights in Reading after I land back in England October 29th. Hum…wonder if there will be some gardening I can do while I’m there. Clip the Hawthorne hedge perhaps?