“Celebrations” Judy Dykstra-Brown says “Just Say Yes to Celebration.”

By Judy Dykstra-Brown

One of my two dearest friends once told me that both of them thought I had always had an air of

entitlement. This was a shock to me as from the inside out, I’ve always felt like I had to earn every bit of success or recognition I’ve ever received and that I’ve worked hard towards it. But in trying to recall the exact conversation that led up to this statement, I remembered that I had written an angry letter to my boyfriend who had totally overlooked my birthday, merely jotting his name down on a card someone else had provided for my birthday party. Luckily, I decided to read the letter to my friend before sending it to my boyfriend, and the statement above was her reaction to my complete disappointment. (No, I never did send the letter.)

Let me say first off that I harbor no resentment against my friend for her statement. I think it is the purpose of friends to occasionally bring these blunt truths and perceptions to light, and there was no malice in her statement, just a wish to furnish me with some insight into myself and to perhaps stay my action in sending the angry and heartbroken letter. She went on to say she’d never had a birthday party in her life. Now that got me to thinking, because I’m sure if I have ever been with her on her birthday, that I would have thrown some kind of a party, even if it was just for the two of us; but perhaps she meant as a child and if this is so, and if expecting some sort of celebration of one’s existence on earth means one projects an air of entitlement, then she is correct, because I am a great believer in celebrations for whomever and for whatever purpose.

Christmas is a big deal to me, even if it means making a crepe paper tree by twisting streamers from a central place on the ceiling down to the various corners and edges of the tiny desk on an ocean liner—which I did when I happened to be on a boat mid-ocean one year for Christmas. Another time, when I was on another cruise with my sister and mother for Christmas, I even packed wrapped presents and a tiny foldable tree in my luggage.

I believe that there are enough days to “rue” in this life, so given any excuse to celebrate, I’m going to take it. On Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, May Day, Halloween, Easter, New Year’s, and Day of the Dead—I’m going to use it as a reason to do something creative and something celebratory. Yes, I admit, over the years I’ve forgotten a few birthdays of friends and relatives not physically present. One other year, everyone forgot mine—even my mother—but when you are with me on your birthday, believe me, we’re going to celebrate it!

Such events smooth out the choppy seas of life and give us something on which to pin our memories. Think back. How many of the best memories of your life involve celebrations of some sort? If I tried hard enough, I could probably remember more childhood events centering around holidays and celebrations than any other factor. I vividly remember the costume party my sister had when she turned 13 and the complete Southern belle ruffled, hoop-skirt costume (complete with picture hat) that a local seamstress made for one of the party attendees—out of crepe paper! My sister went in our older sister’s prom dress, complete with a wrist corsage and dance book (remember those— with a tiny pencil attached for the guys who wanted to dance with you to sign up for a certain place in line on your list?) I went as Alice in Wonderland, accompanied by my sister’s giant yellow “white” rabbit.

The only photo I have of the party shows me, as Alice, in the foreground, but you can see the young girl in her remarkable Southern belle costume in the background, as well as Patti in the polka dot prom dress. Perhaps because we have recorded them with photos, we remember these events the best, but so what? if they weren’t memorable enough to take photos, there wouldn’t be any photos to help us remember them.

At any rate, I was going to list a number of other examples of memories associated with holidays, but I think I’ve proven my point as clearly as I would have if I were to give 20 more examples, so I won’t. The point is that life is going to furnish us with countless choppy seas. In the past few months, this has been especially true with friends and friends of friends suffering terrible tragedies. In some cases, it has been almost too much to bear, but in the midst of all this sadness, we continue to plan these special life events: Valentine’s Day, Easter egg hunts, birthday celebrations, family and class reunions, summer camps for kids, special dinners with friends, writing retreats, and trips to far-off places to visit friends we’ve been promising to take for years. Because life on its own doesn’t furnish us with very many smooth spaces, I think we need to furnish them for ourselves!

Recently I quoted this statement by Will Durant to a friend, and forgive me if you’ve heard it before, but I’m gonna do it again: “Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.”

I think Mr. Durant will forgive me if I add one item to his riverbank list of activities. The word I would add is “celebrate.” It is one more everyday occurrence between people living their ordinary lives that helps to smooth out the bumps that the “big things” provide. Judy Dykstra-

Brown

By David Adamson Harper

It’s hard to turn on the television these days without seeing Daniel Craig being interviewed about the latest Bond movie.

I remember the first time I noticed him, which was in the movie “Munich” (2005). He played one of the Israeli Mossad assassins with a South African accent. Googling him I saw that I had seen him before in the movie “The Power of One” where he played a brutal and vicious Afrikaner policeman, again with the South African accent. However, he is English and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where acting students are required to master thirty to forty accents. It is a tough school to get in to.

According to his Wikipedia bio his breakthrough role came in a BBC TV drama serial “Our Friends in the North” in 1996. I had never heard of this so using my trusty Amazon Firestick I commanded Alexa to see if she could find it and sure enough it was available free on You Tube. Now this was a far different Daniel Craig playing a workingclass young man from Newcastle. He was 28 when he played this part.

Again, this required an accent but this time an unattractive “Geordie” accent. I am English and I know all the accents but Geordie is perhaps the most incomprehensible for an English person from elsewhere to understand and almost impossible for non-English people. In this play all the lead actors speak clearly (for the audience) but at one point in the later episodes there is a 12-year-old boy speaking full on Geordie and my English wife couldn’t understand a word he was saying. After watching the first couple of episodes I was hooked and spent the next three nights watching the whole ten hours of it.

Craig’s character George (Geordie) Peacock was easily recognizable as Craig but a far far cry from James Bond. At times he looked positively ugly with long unwashed blond hair and later, when he is homeless, with blackened teeth and a sometimes leering face. He is one of four main characters, who had been school friends in the Newcastle area. The play follows them through thirty years since school. Geordie’s life is basically one failure after another but it is fascinating to watch with brilliant dialog. It covers the hopelessness of the North East of England with up to 77% unemployment. Geordie escapes to London and joins up with London gangsters involved in the Soho sex trade and it goes on to cover the vast corruption of the Metropolitan Police.

However while this series was fascinating to this Englishman I warn readers it may be hard going and less appealing to a North American audience. My interest in it was the acting of Daniel Craig on his pathway to James Bond. He is a very good actor and inhabits his parts as only great actors achieve. But in my search, I think I have found how he got the part. He was short listed by the Bond producers right after “Munich” where he played a killer, and before that he played a brutal policeman. Bond is a spy who kills people. While Craig is good looking he has a face that seems to barely conceal brutality. This fits well with a 007 who kills people. It is easy to imagine Craig as a killer. I believe the producers went for the tougher look of Daniel Craig rather than the suave sophistication of a Roger Moore.

TLC for Blind Theo

By Christina Bennett

One day in October, we arrived at the Ranch to find a scraggly mess of a dog in the play yard — maybe a poodle

mix with full dreadlocks. After a visit to the groomer, he turned out to be a beautiful senior dog, about 8 years old. We had him neutered but it was obvious he had issues with his eyes. One eye was practically closed and the other was cloudy with a cataract. We knew he needed surgery on his eyes but it would have to wait until he was able to get some good nutrition and gain strength for the surgery.

Corrine, one of our dedicated volunteers, took him home to foster. She reported he was a wonderful little dog. It was obvious he had very little vision. However, after bumping into walls and furniture, he soon learned the lay of the land. He would find his way out to the back yard for potty breaks, meet Corrine at the door if she’d been away, and loved his walks.

Meanwhile a rescue in the US had expressed interest in him. They felt they could get him adopted easily and Bon Voyage agreed to send him on their December bus trip. But then we learned that Theo was not crate tolerant. No one wanted to put him through the distress of a long bus trip if he was unhappy in a crate. Jena Olio from Clicker Pets offered to crate train him—now he happily goes into his crate all the time!

But Theo’s medical concerns must be addressed before he’s ready for adoption. After seeing an ophthalmologist, it was determined that Theo would first need his teeth cleaned. There is a correlation between the teeth and the eyes. One eye had collapsed totally which happens if cataract surgery isn’t done and the other eye is highly questionable. Because Theo also has some kidney issues, we are trying to limit the anesthesia requirements.

So after teeth cleaning, he will go to see his specialist and they will remove one eye and test the retina if the other eye to see if it is healthy enough for cataract surgery. The surgeries will be expensive, but we are determined to do whatever necessary to help this sweet boy. The Ranch takes every dog’s life seriously! Luckily, one of our big-hearted supporters, Louise, stepped up with a donation to cover the medical expenses. (You too can sponsor a dog—see The Ranch’s website for details.)

Foster Corrine was willing to keep him as long as necessary, but she had a family issue arise that required travel. Theo is now with his new foster, Heather, who reports that he is the perfect roommate. She takes him for long walks and they are becoming inseparable

Hopefully by the time you read this, little Theo will be completely healed and ready for his forever home. He is very friendly and affectionate, independent, confident, completely housebroken, not a barker, and likes other dogs.

As you can see, helping dogs like Theo requires a lot of resources. You can help The Ranch by fostering, donating or volunteering. Email us at adoptaranchdog@outlook.com or donate through our website at Theranchchapala.com.

By Moonyeen King

President of the Board for Tepehua moonie1935@yahoo.com

HOLA, 2022!!! Are you already wondering where 2021 went? We were so busy flexing our plexus from the confines of 2020 that time went faster than ever. Looking back and reflecting on 2021, it seemed our world was shrugging its shoulders out of a long sleep. In spite of everything, the Tepehua Center managed to achieve a few goals with the help of the waking public.

The Reverse Osmosis Distribution Center built at the end of 2020, out of necessity because the sick and nursing mothers had no access to potable water, came into its own in 2021, and although we are still trying to straighten out the wrinkles to make it sustainable, it has and is providing potable water to the poor. The Tepehua water is sweet and clear and if you are interested in having water delivered, call Adam King at 332 627 1274 for a moderate rate per five-gallon jug. The monies will go directly to support the medical and potable water program. You are also invited to Tepehua Center to view the small plant. Albeit small, we can supply 300 five-gallon jugs per day. That’s if we have the water bottles, so donations of those are still welcome. They cost more than the water.

The sanitation program to end the pollution of human waste and unhealthy home environment is a slow starter but steady, and the Tepehua Team thanks the readers for their donations of bathroom items like toilets and sinks. It is more appreciated than you will ever know, but you can guess. As the toilets come in they are distributed. We managed to get quite a few installed before Christmas. Thank fate that we, the readers, have never had to wish for a toilet for Christmas. If it is on your wish list or if you know of someone who needs one, call Moonie.

We closed the year with a mini soccer field just a block away from the center. The kids were playing on an empty lot of broken glass and huge rocks. Dads had tried to clear by hand but that was impossible. A machine and heavy truck were needed to take it away.

After permission from the owner, and donations from YOU, the people, our mini field was completed with artificial turf and goal posts and fencing. Why artificial turf? Because the maintenance of real turf is out of the question and would need too much water. Plus, it is replaceable in patches. It was finished in time for Christmas. Who knows? Maybe a soccer star will be born.

The acts of philanthropy and volunteerism is a never-ending marvel. It destroys the myth that society is a “me” generation. The Tepehua Team are in the business where we see only the empathy and generosity of people, even if they have little themselves. We also see the injustice and the ugly, but we can testify the good is far greater than the bad. Politics aside!

Good things will come in 2022, because we all feel the same exuberance of being alive after making it through two years of fear, confusion, frustration, and for some of us, confrontation of self . . . that is always the hardest to grasp, keeping in mind that fallibility is natural and perfection isn’t.

Of course, the threat of COVID and variants will be around for quite a while, but, with the advance of science and cooperation from the public’s reliance on common sense, we should begin to normalize.

In an ideal world without poverty, a society where we are our brothers’ keepers, we still must expect failures because that is who we are. But if it is a society that keeps trying no matter if they fail, it is not a failure. As the saying goes “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! from the Tepehua Team.

By Michael Warren The Madres by Stephanie Alison Walker Directed by Dave McIntosh

This is a remarkable play by a young American

playwright. Stephanie Alison Walker has set the scene in 1978 Argentina during the brutal regime of President Videla. Anyone who opposed the regime or had left-wing views was “disappeared” and probably tortured or killed. Particularly vulnerable were young pregnant women. Their children were adopted by couples who supported or were employed by the regime. The natural mother became a “desaparecido.” How does this intolerable situation affect ordinary people? The scene is set in a small apartment in Buenos Aires where an old lady, “Josefina,” lives with her daughter “Carolina.” Marsha Heaton is outstanding as the spunky Josefina, who refuses to give up on life and cooks and cleans and even sings the old songs. Maybe these terrible times will pass and we can all be happy again. But she is also a realist and knows that we must be cautious, and not talk to the neighbors who might be spies.

Liz O’Neill is also very good in the role of Carolina, who is more defiant and goes out to demonstrate on the plaza, wearing a white headscarf. They are both extremely anxious about “Belen,” who is Carolina’s daughter and eight months pregnant. They don’t know where she is, and fear that she has been captured and is being held at the notorious ESMA, Argentina’s most renowned detainment center.

Into this tense atmosphere there come two fellow travelers, a kindly old friend, the priest “Padre Juan,” and a young soldier, “Diego.” But the padre may also be a spy, and Diego has found meaning in his life by supporting the regime. Jeff Kingsbury is perfectly understated as Padre Juan, while Nicolas Cumplido is suitably humorless and rigid as Diego. Later, Diego brings the pregnant Belen (from prison?) to her “birthday party.” The tension is almost unbearable. Angelica Guerra is subdued and soft-spoken as Belen, an excellent debut on the LLT stage.

Dave McIntosh found the right cast for this play and has created a small masterpiece. The acting and the timing were so good that I forgot that it was a play. This is what it must be like to live under a cruel and oppressive regime that captures its own people under the guise of patriotism. At the end of the play, Josefina and Carolina defy their despair by donning white headscarves and come forward with a picture of Belen. These are the Madres. To this day, they march in the plaza every Thursday afternoon. It’s a magnificent ending to the play, and a tribute to the human spirit.

I was impressed by the professionalism of this performance. Oscars to the director and cast! Win McIntosh was stage manager and Sandy Jacubek was her assistant. I should also mention the music and sound which were very effective.

Next up is This Random World by Steven Dietz, which opens on December 10. Good luck!

Michael Warren