Mayu: "Is that a baby crying next door?"

Me: (listening) "It sure sounds like one, but it couldn't be theirs, as she hasn't been pregnant."

Mayu: "True, true..."

Me: "Maybe a relative is visiting..."

Well, just now, as I am finally putting away the coffee, olive oil and cashews that I bought I hear a bunch of kids playing next door. I look outside and see two of the neighbourhood girls holding this brand new ... baby!

So I grabbed my camera and took this photo:

The girls saw me and I waved. I asked if it's the neighbour's baby and they said yes!

My jaw dropped.

I closed my mouth and I asked when it was born and she responded, 2008, March 14th.

My jaw dropped...

Then the little boy next door who is just a few years old, but old enough to not stop talking saw me and said, "I'm a big brother now!"

My jaw dropped...

Well, I went outside to the ruckus and congratulated the mom and the sister in-law (they live here both families on the same short street just four houses away from each other), and the grandma who always comes over and does all their laundry, and house cleaning, etc. every day (and has been doing as long as we've been here).

And I had to ask... "WHEN on earth were you pregnant????" And she laughed and said that's what everyone in the neighbourhood has been asking her. She said that she was here until the last month when she took leave and went back to her parent's place. Then she had the baby, stayed there for a while and just recently came back here (that's how they do it in Japan).

We HAVE seen her over the past 10 months... but never even once did it ever occur to us that she might have been pregnant!

I mean, I've been exposed during my two decades of being here (as most likely Matt and Dunnster will have experienced), cute coworkers, female friends, etc. who are "single" every time you ask them, and then the next thing you know they are going from "single" to "just married"! You have to ask yourself "when did boyfriend come in?" Usually Japanese women tend to be "single" or "I have lots of boyfriends" because they don't share this stuff with others who are not directly in their circle (even coworkers, believe it or not!). So I'm used to that.

But what I am NOT used to is a family that we chat with when they go to work, when they come home, and whenever we see them (in a blue moon?) to SUDDENLY have a brand spanking new baby!

Well, everyone, meet Kazuma Ishida, a boy born March 14th, 2008.

ThoseSneakyJapanese!

It was obvious back in the 21st century with all the religious wars, terrorists, etc. that had been going on and how religious sects, splinter groups, fundamentalists and more had twisted the original teachings to suit their needs, and their desired ends. Greed consumed all religion, greed and the desire for power. This unconscious collectiveness could simply not withstand the tests of time, and so they all broke down, and collapsed. Not a single major religion that we knew of in the 21st century remained in tact.

They all still did exist, but in a "purer" form, in small sects, cults, hidden worship grottos and such, much like how Christianity once began thousands of years ago. The good majority of the people had either become agnostic in their unconscious rage, anger and disbelief that "their god" would have the audacity to abandon them, or they had turned to what DID remain resilient (sort of) to what humanity had tried to hard to destroy: the power in nature, or a pure form of "druidism", something similar but different again from the "shintoism" kind of worship found to weakly still exist in 21st century Japan. This kind of belief in the "mother goddess" ran quite deeply among a good portion of people around the world, and in a sense, it united those of different cultures in the exact same way that modern religions of the 21st century divided them.

Technology was that weird blend of ancient/modern mishmash that we might expect to find after the destruction of our present civilization and all the toys and science that went along with it. Pockets of modern wonder had remained, but those pieces of technology were looked on more as magic than anything humanity might have developed in the past, and the users of that technology were considered to be powerful magicians and seers...

This was pretty much the end of the dream, but I still have another three pages of text that I wrote before getting up for the day; it tied the entire experience together with my thoughts so I will include that as part (4) tomorrow. Have a lovely rest of day. I have errands to run, and locks on my auto spare tire to bust off... not to mention coffee and olive oil to purchase while out at my car guy. Then probably the killer heavy lower muscle workout at Relaim as I haven't been there for a while.

I love you!

Cam

... We desperately needed the water to survive, but we feared what it brought in our midst, in our minds, and to our social networks ...

I can recall now, although the dream is finally fading after awakening from it 1 1/2 hours ago at 5:10 am, that we were constantly on the move from one ruin to another, sleeping under ruined buildings when we could, making small fires if we were able to find dry things to burn. But we were always on the lookout, always on high alert taking care not to be attacked by other clans, other individuals, other... creatures.

The current biggest problem was that the region we were in had been governed by a vicious military junta for a very long time and the military, and paramilitary forces had carte blanche to do whatever they pleased and nobody on the "outside" could say or do anything to stop them from the horrors they forced their people to endure (this must have come from reading news on current events in Myanmar).

Food aid would be welcomed, then confiscated and never delivered to those people suffering, even though the military and governing warlords always claimed that the food was distributed to those who "needed it most". No outside observers were allowed, no foreign aid workers allowed to follow their deliveries; everything had to be handed over to the powers that ruled the land. Just like what China is doing in Tibet, all news channels, and communications networks were controlled entirely by the military rulers so that no real information could leak out, or make its way back into the zones. Nobody anywhere knew what life outside their microcosm was really like.

People had become restless, they were forming pockets of ever-increasing resistance, fighting back in a "Robin Hood-esque" style of guerrilla warfare (much like what goes on in Iraq, Chechnya, Afghanistan , Palestine and other warring states). Of course they were considered to be "terrorists" in their attempts to destabilize the ruling party's efforts at reconstruction, as well as those who supported the military junta's existence (for the time being). But just like most every rebellion, or insurrection in the past history of our world, they were all based on a common desire to rise above the oppression, the ethnic cleansings, the numerous whatever'cides that the governments exposed their own peoples to. Without these "freedom fighters", fighting for the rights of the average man, woman and child in the street, many poor would have been worse off, many would have died in their squalor, poverty, and starvation.

This of course lead to the military forces destroying entire towns and villages that were believed to harbour these terrorist organizations (as Israel does in Palestine), bulldozing down complete family dwellings, apartments, holy places of worship. And of course this just further enraged the innocent, lighting a further fire within to continue to resist in hopes that one day they would be able to lift themselves above the horrors they had to face.

Everything was scarce: food, fuel, especially water, and we had "devolved" from our "abundance mentality" to "scarcity economics" which caused people to polarize, and resent those who had so much more than those who suffered with so much less. Of course this led to uprisings against the "rich" who where often just those who worked hard and had a good idea that they were able to profit from. These localized uprisings against the "aristocracy" were known as FrenchRevolvers, after the famous French Revolution.

To be continued...

This was a weird morning dream...

I awoke from an insulin-induced semi-lucid dream state waving my arms around as I was teaching Carrie's son, Joaquin, and his older sister (two years older but still in elementary school), English. It wasn't just a general lesson; I was giving pointers on how to make the spoken language more natural by stressing the "big words" (words with content) and de-stressing the "little words" (prepositions, between-words, unimportant words). There was a teacher in the room and she was using a nearly exhausted whiteboard market, but she was writing on the solid paper Japanese fusuma doors that partitioned the rooms from the closets. Yes, this took place in "Japan", and yes, the kids were speaking and communicating in Japanese, or half-Japanese, or neo-Japanese or something...

The school was a mess; it was actually closed down and everything was torn up, overturned, ripped apart, blown to smithereens, in ashes, or non-existent. We were actually using just one of the upper floors of the school as most of the lower levels had been totally destroyed by permanent flooding, so badly that there never was any receding, or any access to the levels by anything other than fish, and other "creatures" of the deep".... Even the levels we could use were covered in rot, mildew, slime, sludge from where the seas had receded some. Not much had survived "The Great Flood" which had put Japan, and most of the land mass of the earth permanently under sea water...

Yes, this was the future, the future after consecutive cataclysmic catastrophes that tore through all of our civilizations around the world, wreaking havoc, killing hundreds of millions, uprooting hundreds of millions more, destroying entire civilizations, forcing us all to live a "Road Warrior" existence, something feudal, something akin to "Waterworld" where the main commodity, the most precious and most scarce resource had become... fresh water.

Everyone was battling for the water; there were water wars going on all around the globe. We in our "wis-dumb" made the critical error of trying to focus our technology on replacing fossil fuels with bio-fuels when we should have been thinking about developing technologies that would easily convert salt water, a growing resource, into potable water, a rapidly dwindling resource in the 21st century.

There were sharks swimming through the lower levels of most buildings, along with many other strange and unknown creatures that had decided to come up from the depths of the deepest darkest unknown parts of the trenches in the seas and oceans. Many of them were "Cthulu-like" nightmares both in form, and in character, and some claimed that they were the ancient races of Atlantis come back to take what they believed was rightfully theirs. They were dark, deadly, dangerous and many a person would disappear in the night, never to be seen or heard from again. It was a terrifying time.

Our technology, having taken a giant leap backward prevented us from going too deep to explore, or conquer, or even to defend so we were much more vulnerable than ever before. Finally we had stopped being the top predator, and had become one of the prey. We were forced to live and die near the surface of the seas, dependent upon them for navigation and commerce, and fearful of them at the same time. Even those who attempted to break away and move inland were never able to survive completely away from the oceans that became known as "The Giver". The giver of life.... the giver of death....

And of course as the human race continued to try to survive from being preyed upon, having the nature that we have, we were also continually at war with one another in an attempt to expand, to take, to conquer the weak, or the sick in order to expand our need for greed, our need for more, our desire to take all...

To be continued...

I wrote about this going to happen back in 360 in my post entitled, Naru Hodo, March 23, 2007, but it happened sooner than I had anticipated. I was thinking "Volume 12" meant December 2008, but I guess not. I still haven't figured out how this journal works its vol, no. system, but that's OK because this is the only one I'm probably ever going to get unless someone finds me in here and wants me to study, research, or work on this stuff for them! Until that time, I'll continue flogging titanium and buffs to China in an ever-increasingly difficult time, to pay the bills... or until the time for a greater change comes upon me.

I know that a good majority of you probably aren't interested in the meat and bones of what I wrote, and that's perfectly OK. It was, in fact, one of my final papers in my MBA studies. My professor, Dr. Wang liked it so much that he recommended I submit it to this journal. And after some editing to fit into their style, it was accepted as "having value to the industry in terms of better understanding the field of Knowledge Management."

Here is a link to my article, Time for Change: Empowering organizations to succeed in the knowledge economy (damn that's a long title!)Even if you don't read the article, take a look at the abstract. It should give you insight into what I was working on. Download the PDF and just scroll through to get a feel for how this journal publishes. The colour scheme is quite nice, and I do like the layout a fair bit.

It's here, it's published, and I hope that those who get this journal will find some nuggets of gold in what I wrote. If asked how I came to my conclusions, I can only say that I took the theory I learned, mixed it into the research that was out there, and then added a good dose of "Life-Systems Engineering Science" that I have learned from Brian Peskin and my best friend Khanada (of YES Supplements and PEO (formerly called EFA) fame) to come up with something that I believe would really work IN THE REAL WORLD.

Have a great day!

I love you!

Cam

It's a little bit like watching a tea kettle boil, but what the heck! This video doesn't even take as long as it takes to boil a pot of water!

By the way, in YouTube, there is now a setting in your personal settings where you can choose to always view the high quality video version. FINALLY! It is a totally different quality than what we have been seeing to date.

I love you!

Cam

And if you make it through all of this fibertalk, there is a great recipe at the end you may like to consider sharing with your family and friends.

Stay healthy, stay informed, and above all, stay open-minded because everything you have learned from "industry" is pretty much off the mark, as witnessed by the real life results of the "man on the street".

I love you!

Cam

*****

Fiber Fiction
April / May 2008

Fiber-fiction and the supposed decrease in cancer contraction rates--physicians have been misled, again.

The number of myths and urban legends on the cause and prevention of cancer are mind-boggling. The extent to which various companies, governing bodies, health officials, and lobbyists have pushed their products and bad science on us has pre-conditioned us to believe that what we are told about the benefits of fiber are true.

Advertisers often go to great lengths to keep these myths alive and well in our minds while cancers continue to ravage our bodies at unprecedented levels! If everything they claimed about fiber were true, we should be getting healthier! Take a simple look around and you will see that this is not the case. We do not need such massive amounts of fiber for our digestive system to work properly or to prevent colon cancer.

In 2004, the cancer journal, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, stated that colon cancer is not helped by eating fiber Dr. Gilbert Omenn stated in a 2000 New York Times article on this subject: "There's not a shred of [cancer fighting] evidence from these trials. ...the surprising results [no cancer protection] showed the need to rigorously put belief systems to the test, especially when you are making recommendations to literally hundreds of millions of people." He concluded with, "...it is time to abandon the idea that fiber can help prevent colon cancer." (Emphasis added)

As referenced in my landmark book, "The Hidden Story of Cancer," fiber actually worsens colon cancer rather than helping it. Even the Cancer Institute finally agrees with this conclusion. The true tragedy lies in the fact that those following this advice and eating the most fiber get the most colon cancer! This fact was reported in 2000 in the Lancet, the world's premier medical journal.[i] There is a general misconception that plant foods are loaded with vitamins that we benefit from; unfortunately, these nutrients are locked away in the plant fiber, or cellulose, which cannot be digested by humans.[ii] Herbivores are able to break down the cellulose and get to the nutrients, but due to our digestive tract design, humans cannot!

Scientists have shown through real-life research in third world countries that grain- and legume-based diets high in phytates do the exact opposite of what we incorrectly assume: they generally have a depressing effect on absorption of minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, and copper.[iii]

Non-chelated minerals (minerals not bound to amino acids, which are only available from meat sources) ionize in the gastrointestinal tract. Once this occurs, the "positive" ions combine with the "negative" ions so they often negate each other, i.e., maximum bioavailability doesn't occur. To make matters worse, the fiber you have consumed binds the ionized minerals into complexes that are non-absorbable and not bioavailable -- you excrete them.

The overall results of many real-life research tests concluded that all the subjects tested were found to be in negative mineral balance (i.e. having much less than required because the fiber REMOVES them) for the supplemented minerals. The highly-promoted high-fiber diets we are exposed to prevent us from getting the minerals we need, causing more harm than good.

We have had years of "fiber fiction" ingrained into us by nutritionists and physicians who believed in the "hype and marketing" of fiber while ignoring their biochemical studies. Fiber cannot be absorbed, or utilized by the human digestive tract in any way, shape or form. It is not a food fit for human consumption and science proves this time and time again.

I went on the record over a decade ago saying fiber is not food for a human being and that it irritates, rather than aids the colon. I predicted fiber eaters would develop the most colon cancer, and they did!

Newsflash from 2002: Fiber KNOWN NOT to Reduce Colon Cancer Risk

In 1999 and 2000 the world's best medical journals published the truth of "fiber fiction": that those who ate the most fiber got the most colon cancer-the opposite of the expected result! The following statements were clearly explained in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, a cancer journal published by the American Association for Cancer Research.[iv] :

"[The researchers administered the patients a] cereal supplement of either 13.5 or 2.0 grams per day. ...No protective effect for adenoma [benign glandular tumor leading to cancer] recurrence was observed for those randomized to the high-fiber group as compared to those in the low-fiber group... Patients in the high-fiber intervention arm of the WBF trial reported side effects such as nausea, diarrhea and abdominal bloating more frequently than those in the low fiber group..."

Finally, "The results of this study show that neither fiber intake from a wheat bran supplement nor total fiber intake affects the recurrence of colorectal adenomas, thus lending further evidence to the body of literature indicating that consumption of a high-fiber diet, especially one rich in cereal fiber, does not reduce the risk of colorectal adenoma recurrence." (Emphasis added.)

The results showed that even a whopping six times more fiber in the diet makes no difference in increased cancer protection. Added to that was the glaring fact that the poor patients eating the most fiber reported terrible side effects. In spite of this knowledge, recommendations to include plenty of fiber have NOT changed, even though fiber is worthless for preventing tumors leading to colorectal cancer and harmful to our general health and well-being.

The fallacy of "fiber fiction" got its start in 1971 when Irish physician and surgeon Denis Burkitt visited Africa to conduct research into the effects of western diet among Africans. He came to the (grossly incorrect) conclusion that the increase in Western diseases among Africans was due to a reduced consumption of plant foods containing dietary fiber. It is interesting to note that his contemporary, heart researcher physician George Mann's work was conspicuously omitted from Burkitt's findings. Dr. Mann studied the Masai tribes and came to the (politically unpopular but scientifically correct) conclusion that their high fat diet from animal sources did not predispose them to heart disease.

Burkitt was firmly committed to the belief that the replacement of animal products with grains was a way to "prevent cancer and heart disease" as well as "forestall world hunger." His writings on dietary fiber led to calls for increased amounts of whole grains in the American diet in order to supposedly prevent colon cancer and other diseases of the intestinal tract; Single-handledly destroying the health of millions of Americans because contrary to popular belief, fiber IRRITATES your delicate colon.

"Dietary fiber is good for you" soon became, and has continued to be a mantra that too many people have been gravely harmed by.

Newsflash 2007: Increased glucose [carbohydrate] is a strong risk factor for colorectal cancer

It is glaringly obvious that fiber will not protect us from colorectal cancers; rather, it makes the problem of colon cancer much worse. What is the main problem? Once again, it is the opposite of what we are told: Carbohydrates. The following conclusions, recently published in the medical journal,Gastroenterologyv, shed light on this fact:

"Over the course of a 4-year follow-up evaluation ... For both insulin and glucose, we found higher risk [for polyps] for subjects in the high quartile compared to the low quartile... The association for glucose [carbohydrates] was most apparent for advanced carcinomas... Our findings suggest that patients with increased insulin and glucose [diabetic and overweight] are at higher risk for adenoma recurrence, and for those with increased glucose, the risk for recurrence of advanced adenoma is even greater." (Emphasis added.)

This study shows that more polyps occurred in groups with the highest blood insulin and glucose levels. The greater the increase in blood glucose and insulin (due to carbohydrate consumption), the greater the cancer risk was. The more aggressive the cancer, the more deadly carbohydrate consumption becomes. Carbohydrates are the fuel for cancerous growth and this finding re-confirms the damage incurred through carbohydrate consumption and high insulin levels.

Newsflash 2007: "No Cancer Shield Found in Fruit and Vegetable Diet"[vi]:
"More veggies not the answer" [vii]

Vegetables contain plenty of fiber. Although there has never been a scientific basis for the claim that fruits and vegetables are cancer protective, it has not stopped physicians, nutritionists, the government, and virtually the entire nutritional community leading everyone from the truth. This fallacy was once again quickly dispelled during a comprehensive study on the effects of low-fat and high fruit/vegetable diets on breast cancer patients:

"Hopes that a diet low in fat and full of fruits and vegetables could prevent the return of breast cancer were dashed Tuesday by a large seven-year experiment in more than 3,000 women... The study, conducted at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and six other facilities,found recurrence and survival rates were no better than for those who ate nine or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables than those who ate five...

"...a daily diet that included five vegetable servings, three fruit servings, 16 ounces of vegetable juice, and 30 grams of fiber.... The women were allowed to eat meat, but were told to get no more than 15 to 20% of their calories from fat... During the next seven years, the cancer returned in about the same proportion of women in both groups.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary staring them in the face, researchers still clung desperately to the fallacy about fiber, fat, and lots of exercise that we have been fed for decades:

"In addition to exercising regularly, eating a diet that has plenty of fruits and vegetables and is moderate in fat is still one of the best ways we know to maintain health," said Caan (senior epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California.)"[viii]

***The best these researchers can do is to tell you to keep doing what they know doesn't work because they have no idea of what does work. ***

Cancer researchers' incredible lack of understanding of what causes and prevents cancer is deplorable and these researchers' expectations prove that once again:

Their diet had 65% more vegetables and 30% more fiber, yet we know that scientifically vegetable fiber "magnetizes out" precious minerals, including the respiratory co-enzyme minerals critical for oxygen transfer.

The diet had 25% more fruit (carbohydrates) in spite of the fact that a cancer's prime fuel is carbohydrates. Fruit sugars give newly developing cancer an over-abundance of its prime fuel to overwhelm the body. How stupid can they be!?!

The diet had 13% less fat even though it should be well-known that fat-restrictive diet will minimize the vital EFAs (unprocessed omega-6 in particular) required, guaranteeing cellular de-oxygenation. Restricting natural fat by cutting back on meat consumed decreases overall protein intake. Oxygen transfer will be impeded because plenty of protein is required for maximum oxygen-transferring hemoglobin.

These conditions will guarantee the perfect environment for cancer growth, as proven by Dr. Otto Warburg, M.D., Ph.D. decades ago.

If you haven't read [Peskin's] "The Hidden Story of Cancer" or "The 24-Hour Diet", I hope this startling newsletter will motivate you to take an active role in your own and your family's health.

References:
i. Lancet, October 14, 2000; 356:1286-1287.
ii. Essentials of Biochemistry, Jay M. Templin, Research & Education Assn, 1998, pg. 185. ISBN: 0878910735.
iii. Van Rensburg et al., "Nutritional status of African populations predisposed to esophageal cancer", Nutrition and Cancer, vol. 4, 1983, pp. 206-216; Moser, P.B. et al., "Copper, iron, zinc and selenium dietary intake and status of Nepalese lactating women and their breast fed infants", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 47:729-734, April 1988; Harland, B.F. et al., "Nutritional status and phytate: zinc and phytate X calcium: zinc dietary molar ratios of lacto-ovo vegetarian Trappist monks: 10 years later", Journal of the American Dietetic Association 88:1562-1566, December 1988.
iv. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, Sep;11(9):906-14.
v. Gastroenterology at top of page 4, your reference [2]: "Gastroenterology publication"
vi. Houston Chronicle, July 18, 2007, pages 1 and 3.
vii. The New York Times (International Edition), A14, July 18, 2007. Ref.: Journal of the American Medical Association.
viii. Medical News Today: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/77103.php. Ref.: Journal of the American Medical Association 2007;298(3):289-298.

This Month's Low-Carb Recipe: Shrimp Scampi

INGREDIENTS
1 lb. peeled shrimp
3 cloves minced garlic
3 Tbl. butter
1 tsp. minced tarragon
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. sugar or 1/8 tsp stevioside or 2 pkts stevia
1/4 cup dry white wine
salt & pepper to taste
lemon or lime if desired

PREPARATION
1. Heat skillet over medium heat.
2. Melt butter and saute garlic and tarragon until garlic is lightly brown.
3. Dip shrimp in egg and saute in skillet for 2-4 minutes.
4. Dissolve sugar or stevioside into white wine and add with salt and pepper then saute for 3 minutes.
5. Serve with slice of lemon or lime.

Makes 5 servings.
Enjoy!

DO YOU HAVE A GREAT LOW-CARB RECIPE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE?
Submit your recipe to orders@pinnacle-press.com for consideration to be included in the NEW Cook it Cool cookbook (coming soon). If your recipe gets chosen for inclusion in Cook it Cook, you will receive a FREE copy of the book when it's released.

Your Essential Supplements, Inc., 2825 Wilcrest Drive, Suite 680, Houston, TX 77042, USA

As Tolle talks about in the last few chapters of his book, A New Earth, the ego doesn't like quiet, peace, space, because the owner of the ego has the opportunity to be present and simply "be" which signifies the beginning of the death of ego. Strong egos that control the minds they embody will create thoughts and emotions that push the body to act in ways that disrupt the silence, because to the ego, "quiet" is unbearable.

We got another call today from Matsuda-san who is responsible for the neighbourhood this year. Mayu talked with her, and then came upstairs to relay the current info with me. As she walked into the laundry room, she was sighing...

Apparently Daddy Dickhead next door complained that they can't stand the noise we make.

Huh? Noise? What noise??? I never ever turn on the TV, I don't play music, I don't have parties here... We maybe sit outside at 9pm in the good weather and talk a bit as Mayu has a smoke, but we are always aware of the neighbours, and try to keep our voices down as walls are thin and it seems that everyone goes to bed at like 8:30 or something. We even "turn off" our wind chimes so that the neighbours are not bothered by the beautiful sound of music ringing softly in the night breezes...

Mayu turns the TV on from 7am to 9am during the breakfast hours, but even so, we don't blast it as we both have good hearing, and youthful ears. We may watch a movie once or twice a month on DVD, and the TV hardly is ever turned on at night.

But even if it was... so what? What is the meaning of life? Is it to tiptoe around making no noise at all? Impossible. The boy next to us screams in his sleep at night. The parents out back behind Dickhead are always screaming at their kids. The younger boy is always crying because he can't do what his older brother does, or because he doesn't get exactly the same. Dogs bark, cars drive by, the "music" for the village directly overhead ring out every 7am, 11.30am, 12 noon, 6pm, 9pm. There are village announcements over the PA every day that ring through the valley. We can hear the kids in the jr high school down the hill playing or practicing sports in the school field. People go for walks and talk.

It is life.

It is living.

It's just the neighbour looking for more and more things to demonize us with.

But noise? That is laughable. I can't think of a quieter couple than Mayu and I to tell the truth. Sure, the vacuum makes a noise once a week and the door sometimes opens and closes as we come and go. Oh my goodness we might even have a conversation a couple of times a day or the phone might ring! Heaven forbid!

But noise? Complaining about US making too much noise? Could it be the flushing of the toilet? Or maybe opening and closing the fridge! How about washing dishes, or laughing at a joke? I wonder if the birds chirping merrily, when in our yard, are considered "our noise"? That would be interesting. Or starting, or stopping the automobiles? Perhaps being nice to the postman and talking to him for a few minutes as he delivers the mail is a disturbance. Could it be the sound of us shoveling snow and keeping the street clean, and the elderly neighbour's parking entry free of snow? Pulling weeds makes noise too, I guess.

But noise? Us, making noise? I wonder if the ticking of the clocks are too noisy? Maybe my incessant tapping on these keyboards drive them crazy. How about the sound of an eco-light bulb warming up? The sound of the chairs across the hardwood floors as we sit down to a meal? The meal! Yes, the sound of chewing! That must be it! Or the rustling of the hedges, and ferns in the garden as they grow from the beautiful breeze we always feel here. The slapping of Mayu's slippers on the floors as she walks around could be the culprit as might my bare feet padding up and down the stairs....

It must be life, our life, and the sounds that we make as we move naturally, and comfortably through that life that are causing them duress and hardship.

My guess, aside from their perception beginning to become more and more twisted (last year they complained that our bushes hung into their yard and then they complained that I went into their yard to cut the bushes hanging into their yard...), is that his retirement last year, and the death of their dog has left him going through some transition where his ego and possibly his son's hatred of us, is screaming to be fed, to be nourished with outside stimulus. And because it is so quiet here, he looks to us and creates that stimulus, that conflict that maybe he is missing in his retirement from his job working in the trash industry.

It's really sad when we are living a quiet, friendly, caring, responsibly adult life here and the neighbours start to turn on us. As "The Four Agreements" stated, most of this kind of stuff is a reflection of the speaker's own personality, and not a true rendition of the situation.

Then again, maybe they just need more fiber in their diet...

I love you!

Cam

P.S.