NEW STORY 
RIGHTEOUS POWER OF ART
by Bruce Springsteen as quoted by Heather Cox Richardson

“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals, democracy, our Constitution, and our sacred American promise. The America I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration,” he said.

“Tonight, we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unrivaled corruption, resistance over complacency, truth over lies, unity over division, and peace over war.”

Springsteen represents the oldsters among us. 

NEW PERSPECTIVE
FLY ME TO THE MOON

For ten days and counting, teams involved in sending crew Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist), and Canadian Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist), on a trip around our moon, kept us riveted in a new perspective of our planet as seen from space. 

For those of us who over fifty years ago had watched the first trips to the moon, this was like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. Young people from that era were inspired by those early pioneers and dedicated themselves to the sciences that made this possible. 

Yet, as Artimis II orbited the moon, it was not so much the crew’s stem-science knowledge that wowed us as much as their human capacity to honor and respect each other in arduous circumstances. Articles are being written about how they exemplified Emotional Intelligence (integrity, humility) as a necessary leadership quality. 

From lift off at the coast of Florida, to orbiting in a vessel made in Europe and controlled by NASA in Houston, splashdown off the coast of California, and recorded minute by minute by BBC, we witnessed mid-life humanity at its best. 

 

NEW GOAL
CARING FOR PLANET EARTH

Christina Koch described planet earth as a lifeboat and humanity as its crew. For me this perspective is exemplified by the climate care nonprofit Actions Speak Louder.

For years they have been calling upon the fashion and clothing industry, as exemplified by exercise clothing leader Lululemon, to stop using fossil fuels. Publicly Lululemon has reported some miniscule efforts. Actions Speak Louder decided to show that their excuses are nonsense. 

Using Lululemon’s designs and messaging, they created a no-fossil-fuels clothing brand called Mumumelon and opened an outlet down the street from a Lululemon store in London. Because their audience is Lululemon and its followers, they invited staff at the Lululemon store to attend their Mumumelon opening. 

These young people are prepared for lawsuits. While acknowledging that they have infringed on Lululemon’s copyright, they assert they have NOT infringed on the rights of Planet Earth. In an era of competing values, they are claiming that of integrity: “focusing on verifiable, renewable energy (wind and solar) to set a higher standard”.

While every generation stands on the shoulders of those who went before them, it is also true that the solutions of yesterday become the problems of today. We all have a role to play.

 YES, WE CAN!

City Hall to City Hall

I want to take you behind the scenes of the massive numbers and amazing signs at 3300 NO KINGS rallies and marches, covered by mainstream media. There was a lot of grassroots organizing that went into these events. 

To support the combined Eugene/Springfield rally & march held jointly in Springfield, two young female bike riders arranged for bikers to assemble in Eugene and ride together from Eugene’s city hall to city hall in Springfield, the site of the No Kings demonstration. 

I learned of this grassroots-organizing because another person in her eighties and I had decided to for-go the massive crowd and traffic in Springfield by demonstrating alongside the major bridge crossing the Willamette River, accessing Eugene’s sister city. Arriving at 10:00, we noticed bikers with signs assembling below us at Eugene City Hall. 

We walked down to check it out and were present as rally-goers of every age kept arriving. Conversing with a few demonstrators, we learned that two young people had arranged for bikers to meet at Eugene City Hall for a joint ride to Springfield City Hall, site of the rally. We also learned that non-biking groups were organized to meet at a University of Oregon rapid transit site to travel together to central Springfield.

I walked among the bikers taking photos of their signs and trying to capture their multi-age nature without giving away too many identifying characteristics.

At 10:15 one of the leaders stood on a cement ledge and explained that she would be going now to the head of the line to lead the group. A second young woman stood beside her and gave an excellent explanation of biker etiquette: visual and auditory signals. She would be at the end of the line with someone who would be counting as each biker trailed the leader.

After waving a couple of late arrivers on, my friend and I walked back up to our site, unaware that we were launching another much smaller group of protesters. 

Streetside Rally

One demonstrator was already down the road from where we chose to stand, waving two bright green signs. A man across the street from us called over to ask where the rally site was, nodded when he heard Springfield and took off to get there for the 11:00 launch.

Soon a woman in a green frog suit appeared across from us. She tested waving her sign, seemed satisfied, then went and got two carloads of older people who positioned themselves at a corner where they were visible to cars joining the main traffic from a feeder route. 

Minutes later, a gray-haired woman approached us from behind and pulled out two signs. When my companion told her about the bikers, she pushed her signs back in a bag and said, “I’m going to get my bike and ride over to Springfield.” We grinned and said, “Go for it!”

Out on the road, cars began honking and waving when they saw us. Soon I began noticing that small groups of cars were coming off the feeder road onto the highway. They had their lights on and were honking as they passed. These appeared to be self-organized groups who had figured out a common parking spot in Springfield from which to walk to the rally. 

As noon approached, our arms were getting tired, and we were thinking we had probably done enough. Another gray-haired lady came up behind us with a sign that said, ‘Not Your Oyster Bed’. As a caregiver for her husband, she explained that she couldn’t go far and for very long, but she really wanted to make her voice heard. Our site would work well for her. 

We left her in charge of our rally site and dragged our tired hips and aching arms back to our car at Alton Baker Park. My sign is parked on my back deck, a blister on my left thumb carries evidence of all the times I waved it to people about to cross a bridge into the future.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Blooming Cherry Tree

Ever wonder how this beauty came to be?

A photo meditation on my balcony garden

will unravel that for you. 

TAKE THREE DEEP BREATHS AND BEGIN

In the photo below:

See the red aura on distant trees? 

... the not-yet-open bud at the tip of a branch

of a baby Maple tree on my deck?
... two mating ducks in lower left corner?

See the red stem and green buds on the baby Maple tree?
That red stem ending (new growth) creates the red aura in previous photo.

Maple buds are growing! 

A green aura will soon emerge.

Watch me now!

Three stages of Maple leaf growth.

Look at me now!

Tulip buds under a baby Maple tree.

Tulip bulb gathers energy as duck below forages for food.

Tulip ready to open ...

 baby Maple leaves say Hi.

See the growth buds 

on this four-year-old baby Pine tree?

Its root system is intertwined 

with its partner Maple tree.

CLOSE YOUR EYES.

REFLECT ON THE MIRACLE YOU HAVE WITNESSED.

MIRACLE OF LIGHT

A volunteer in the pot with my Korean Dogwood
starter. Maybe it's a weed ...

For several weeks green tips have been pushing up through dark soil, straining toward sun’s light and reaching thirstily for rain drops. Unlike my deck plants which have been feeling each day’s increasing light since winter solstice, we humans often require a reminder such as the beginning or ending of ‘daylight savings time’.

NATURE IS OUR GUIDE

Governed by Mother Nature and her rhythms, humans have always been migrants whose ramblings were tied to sources of food.

Like perennials, the first hominids in Africa oriented themselves to light and moisture as we/they developed human brains capable of speech and reason. Understanding in every fiber of their being that they were part of nature, rooted and connected to all its dimensions, they followed the fish they needed for nourishment, going steadily eastward from Africa to the coasts of present-day Arabia, Iran, India, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, etc.

A perennial Hydrangea shares space
with a volunteer Cedar start.

Likewise, when the Saharan desert was a vast grassland, our hominid ancestors followed birds and animals north into what we know as the Iberian Peninsula on the western side of the Mediterranean Sea. On the sea’s eastern shore, bound to both fish and animals, hominids and Homo sapiens moved steadily through the Ancient Near East before following the Caucasus mountains into the Scandinavian countries, Russia and Siberia.

OUR FRIEND THE SUN

The sun is once again our friend. As in the long distant past, we humans are realizing that despite and because of all the marvels our brains have concocted, we are bound to nature for sustenance. Sun, wind, and water now power devices we use throughout day and night. Each in its own way is knitting humanity together in new and exciting mosaics.

When farms in Northern California, a primary breadbasket for North America,  encountered a short supply of water from the Colorado River, innovators began placing solar arrays over canals and drying land. 

Over canals, solar panels reduced water’s evaporation while providing a vast new source of electricity for homes and industry. 

Similarly, solar arrays placed over former vegetable fields now help hold moisture in the soil, making it both arable for crops and/or providing grassland for sheep and goats. Enormous solar arrays are producing electricity, replacing the toxicity of coal, gas and oil. 

Reaching for the light.

Areas in eastern Oregon and Washington, denuded of their once voluptuous forests and pristine waters, are finding new sources of income with large solar arrays. Similarly, small and medium sized solar arrays are bringing new life to rural areas of Africa once emptied out as people fled in search of jobs in urban developed areas. 

A small landowner, often female or elderly, can have a solar array that keeps enough moisture in the soil to grow food while also producing extra energy to sell to their neighbors. As knowledge of Agrivoltaics spreads around the world, we can expect out-migration to stabilize in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and South America.

SISTERS WIND & WATER

I’m not as familiar with windmills as I am with solar energy, but I have read that when placed offshore their underwater bases are providing places for new coral reefs to take hold. A food source and breeding ground for fish, coral reefs have become endangered around the world. 

Shoreside, windmills on land subject to intense winds are producing energy while partially stabilizing the soil. And no, they don’t kill any more birds than airplanes as their homing instincts have developed to search for stable places aloft for building their nests. 

Whereas we have depended upon dams to control water flow and produce electrical power, now it is possible to remove dams and allow fish and wildlife to thrive. While out in the ocean, desalination creates drinking water and wave power is producing energy.

Anticipating more light and warmth.

REFRESHED FROM WINTER’S DARKNESS

As we set our clocks an hour forwards this weekend, let us appreciate the early hours of morning darkness when thoughts flow like gentle rain. Awakening from REM sleep, pay attention to fresh mind-maps, your unique breeding ground for poems and creativity.

 PHOTOJOURNALISTS FOR GOOD

Cell phones for economic, political, and cultural power.

Alex Pretti, a VA nurse at a Minneapolis veterans hospital, was murdered with a cell phone in his hand while trying to protect a woman from the senseless violence of ICE. He has become a symbol of positive masculinity. 

The ubiquitous cell phone gives everyone the option of becoming a photojournalist and thus a positive cultural and political force.

Showing the truth is a powerful force for good. It exemplifies solid social morality. The phone has become more powerful than the gun and made local citizens more influential than government officials.

Showing up in public to support one’s neighbors and documenting the physical abuse of Republican officials is as revolutionary as riding a horse from town to town spreading the word, “The British are coming!” to alert each local militia to stand up and protect their liberty. 

Meanwhile, the brand of Dumpster DJT has gone from ‘economic deal maker’ to Chaos / Confusion / Corruption and Hate / Greed / Violence.

Anyone linked to DJT is a representative of his brand. Voters in the United States of America, a majority of whom own cell phones, now know what the Republican party has come to represent … and it ain’t good.

 ZAMBIA TODAY 

Terry Bergdall, October 2025

Pamela and Terry Bergdall lived 18 years in Africa, engaged in village development work. After beginning as staff members at the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in Nairobi, Kenya, their final 13 years were in Zambia. Twenty-five years after his departure, Terry returned to Zambia. Below are some of his observations and impressions about noticeable change. 

Shopping Malls

in 2000, about the same time that I returned to Chicago, the first large modern shopping mall opened in Lusaka across from the show-grounds on the Great East Road. Now numerous large shopping malls can be found throughout the city. The one by the showgrounds has quadrupled in size with a huge, expanded parking lot. 

The Kabulanga neighborhood had a single grocery store -- Melissa’s (or MMM) -- though modest, it had the best stocked shelves in the city. During my years in Lusaka, it was the grocery store where I preferred to shop. Now the Kabulanga shopping area has spread over half a kilometer and is full of several large commercial businesses. MMM itself has moved into a much larger facility and rivals the supermarkets in physical size and inventory that I find in Chicago. 

A big surprise for me was a major new mall located directly across the street from the Co-op College where Pam and I both delivered training programs. During my time in Zambia it was far out of town and was reached by passing a long stretch of empty land and the city’s cemetery. Nothing else was nearby. Now it is the busy destination of many, many shoppers. These malls with busy shoppers are a huge contrast to long slow-moving lines outside small shops in the 1980s which were unavoidable for many people needing to purchase basics like ground maize and cooking oil. 

Franchise Restaurants

An even a bigger surprise than the malls was the explosion of franchise restaurants that have appeared “everywhere:” Nandos’s chicken, The Hungry Lion, Debonaire’s pizza, Steer’s burgers and steaks -- most of these, I suppose, being South African fast-food chains. The number of these places is comparable to the McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Pizza Huts, etc., that have overtaken American cities. KFC is one franchise that seems to flourish in both countries. I never expected to see this in Zambia. There also are many new flyover bridges on widened roads to accommodate the traffic to and from the malls and fast-food franchises. 

Middleclass Zambians

Besides the sheer number of these eating establishments and shopping malls, I was totally unprepared to see them fully occupied by middleclass Zambians with the necessary disposable income, especially in the more urban areas, to frequent them. And these changes are not only in Lusaka. On the road to Victoria Falls, we saw the same supermarkets and food franchises in district towns like Kafue, Mazabuka, Monze, as well as the regional center of Choma. 

As widely reported elsewhere, the Chinese are a dominant presence everywhere. One of the major sponsors of the annual “chiefdom” celebration that we attended while in Choma was a Chinese mining company. Their Chinese managing director delivered a major speech during the ceremony. 

Cell Phones

Cell phones are also everywhere in Zambia, including among those rural farmers who ride their bikes to market over-loaded with goods for sale. Telephone transfers of money are a major form of making payments. While we were in Choma, our host purchased a watermelon from a roadside vendor (i.e., an elderly woman sitting on a blanket as she attempted to sell a dozen watermelons and some cucumbers, tomatoes, and a few other vegetable) via a phone transfer of kwacha, Zambia’s currency. This is a very popular alternative to cash and credit cards. 

 

 MAGIC IN THE AIR

Dance of Joy     LiDoña Wagner 2023

Three Strange Angels

Standing at the entrance to my benefit art sale, was a Baba Yaga figure such as I learned about from Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with the Wolves. In the eyes of this contemporary form of magic and mystery, I glimpsed a woman I had once met at a yoga retreat. 

Coming up behind her was a man in jeans and tee shirt with a friendly grin. I welcomed them into my gallery home where Baba Yaga made her way through a series of rooms - Global Crossroads - Navigating Change - Sun, Moon & Water - Our DNA Tells the Story - My Happy Place & Our Evolving History. 

Meanwhile, her companion - an affable teacher from Los Angeles - engaged me in conversation.

The LA teacher and I connected over our common appreciation of KDFC radio’s From the Top. We marveled that I had heard one of his social activist students play guitar on this San Francisco youth musicians program. 

Hearing the door open, I turned to see a person of Middle Eastern descent entering the gallery. It turned out that he completed a trio of friends who had met in their youth as students at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City. 

Two decades before them I had spent a year at the same illustrious Iowa school but left after failing to be admitted to its Writers Workshop. Lines from a D.H. Lawrence poem came to mind: “when three strange angels appear at your door, admit them, admit them.” 

So, yes, I engaged the trio with grace and wonder. 

I learned that Baba Yaga had not told her companions to what event she was bringing them. Nevertheless, there ensued memorable in-depth conversations about two of my large paintings that had attracted Baba Yaga’s attention. 

They then stunned me by purchasing both paintings from my 'solace from grieving' period. 

Whether you call it magic or the stars being aligned, there was something seemingly unreal about the whole experience.