Questions from a Grandson

Why is the sky blue?

The sky is blue because of the water droplets present in the air. Those droplets act as tiny prisms. The light shines in one side, it is bent, and when it shines out the other side it is broken into colors. The color that happens to be present in the sky is blue.

Do you have a trampoline?

Sorry no.

Do you know where chocolate comes from?

Chocolate comes from a bean grown in a pod on a cocao tree. The beans must be fermented, dried, cleaned and roasted. They are then ground into powder. That powder is mixed and made into a liquid. The liquid is then powered again or made into chocolate. It is very bitter at that stage which is the reason they add
sugar. It does not grow here that I know of, but it grows in Mexico. Mexican chocolate is very good. It also  in Central America. It needs the tropical heat to grow.

Do you know what is in cocoa beans?

 There is a substance called theobromine that is can lower blood pressure and also work on seratonan which is a chemical in the brain that keeps you awake during the day. There is another chemical, present in the body that helps you sleep at night--that is called melatonin.

Theobromine is not good for dogs that is the reason they should not have chocolate.

Do you have a cocoa tree?

No again. We aare in the tropics, but so far I have not seen a cocoa tree--we have plenty of mangos though.

Love,
Grandma

Is There a Santa Claus?

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?


This letter, written in 1897 by Virginia O'Hanlon, and the response by Francis Pharcellus Church, editor of THE SUN, has become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial.

Here at home we are debating the same question. I didn’t want to lie to my kids, so when they were wee ones, I told them Santa was pretend—I got them, though, the year the carrots we put out for the reindeer had disappeared come morning.

Now DD has her own wee one, he is almost two now, and she has decided that Santa is a belief much like the success philosophy we have been expounding. And so we wonder, how does one convey a belief in a thing when the thing is fiction.

But is it? Santa is a concept, a belief, a figment. See what it does for people. We wish strangers a Merry Christmas when we normally wouldn’t say anything to them at all. Perhaps Santa is a metaphor that gives us permission for being nice, to wear silly sweaters and to drink eggnog. We read The Night Before Christmas story over and over, and every time we do we feel happy.

“A Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”

Maybe there is a Santa, a Father Christmas, a spirit that makes glad the hearts of children and adults.  Maybe he doesn’t live at the North Pole, but he lives on, passed from heart to heart. Without the spirit of Santa Claus we might give a present, as with birthdays, but not with the lavishness that Christmas brings. You have to fill all the stockings and then turn to the tree and dump our bag of gifts under it.

What was your favorite Christmas?

My step dad said that as a family with five boys they didn’t have much money for presents, but one year the fire department had painted bicycles and tricycles and restored toys and come Christmas their family found more presents under the tree than they had ever seen in their lives. That made a believer out of him.

A believer in what? In magic? Dreams? That wishing will make it so? That whatever we put our attention on will come to pass? What about the genie that is our own subconscious what works to bring to us what we focus on. The Secret? The Secret? What is the secret? The spirit of peace and good will to all?

“No Santa Claus!” writes Church. “Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

Two questions from the bottle

From T. come two questions:

1. Why are pain, suffering, war, and scandal more popular subjects to talk about than love, charity, miracles, and the wonders of nature?

2. And to Baby Elias: Are you glad you came?

From Grandma Jo:

We are emotion magnets. Perhaps it was built into us as cave people, to react to the strongest stimuli. Fear, fun, excitement, challenge, suspense, it is a matter of priorities. The highest emotion trumps everything else. Originally it was probably a matter of survival.

Now, over the millennia, the media, and others who wish to control or manipulate us have capitalized on that human condition.


Journalism’s mantra, “If it bleeds it leads,” controls newspapers. Sex controls ads. 


Advertisers believe that whatever gets the most attention gets the most readership. We are duped.

That’s history.

And it is assuming, of course, that we are blood thirsty Homo sapiens, which I believe we are not.


We’ve been listening to the wrong voice. We’ve been listening to the ones that frighten us, and those in the know who know that fear controls people.

Terry Cole Whittaker says that “The mind is like a pit bull. An untrained pit bill is a bad dog. A trained pit bull is a great dog, protective, loyal, and strong. You must train your mind to be a vehicle of spirit. Otherwise, it will ruin your life.”

And how do we do that?

First, although those conditions, pain, suffering war, scandal are present on this earth, we do not have to be a part of it. Feed the brain on love, charity, miracles and the wonders of nature. As we do that we will be amazed at how much more of it we will see.

Not easy you say? Yes for we are bombarded with negativity on all sides, but we are the ones to make a brighter day, so let’s start living.


                                                            Black Sands Beach

This subject will be explored more later on.

Baby Elias, are you glad you came?

I have two doting grandparents, a Momma who knows the sun rises and sets in me, and who asks me every day, “What wonderful thing are we going to do today?

I have traveled eight states, moved from Oregon to the Island, taken airplane rides—oh I love airplanes, well, I like cars too, horses, I love horses. I like Minnie Mouse and yesterday I got a beanie hat, with a propeller on top, and on the drive home I practiced saying “Beanie hat” and “Meerkat Madness”—now that’s funny, because Meerkats are Zen masters, no madness there.

If you ask me something I do not say “Yes.” I say “I do.”

Do I plan to have a happy life?

“I do.”

Am I glad I came? Yes is the answer, but will “I do” suffice?

Momma Answers:

I used to commute long driving distances and loved to listen to talk radio in the car. Then I realized how depressing and frightening it all was. After listening to the commercials I believed I was too poor, too lonely and my penis was too small (and I don't even have a penis). I don't know why people are so drawn to the dark side. But I do know how to minimize their effect on your life:

 1) Surround yourself with positive people. The motivational speaker Jack Canfield says we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Choose to be a more positive person by choosing to be around people who inspire and uplift you.

2) Don't participate in ain't-it-awful conversations. If a conversation starts to go into doom and gloom try to steer it in a new direction.

3) Turn off your television. It only makes you feel bad. We have chosen to not have a television in our house right now. We watch movies and selected TV shows on DVD. The lack of commercials will change your life!

An answer for Baby Elias:

Sometimes my son wakes up laughing and I think to myself how wonderful it is to be innocent. Just as I shelter my young child from the darkness of the World, you too can shelter yourself.

                                                           Our Christmas Turtle

 "What wonderful thing are we going to do today?"
 --Every morning we greet Baby Elias with this question.

When we visited the  Pu'u Honua O'Honaunau, "The City of Refuge," we came upon a native dressed in a loin cloth carving a Tiki. He stopped his carving and told the assemblage about being a little boy sitting with other boys at an elder's knee. "What lies beyond the horizon?" asked the elder waving his hand out over the vast expanse of ocean.


The boys were embarrassed. They didn't know. The island was their entire world.

"Life," said the elder. "Life lies beyond the horizon."

We adopted that motto. We are endeavoring to explore beyond what we expect to see from our vantage point.

The horizon of the mind is the same. We think we know what is, but from a higher larger perspective we see more.

Said Zig Zigler, "Go as far as you can go and when you get there you can always see farther."

Together we will see farther...