State of Chaos—Gun violence stains U.S.

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State of Chaos—Gun violence stains U.S.

“Who is the slayer, who the victim? Speak.” —Sophocles

Please don’t respond again with the outworn phrase, “This is not who we are.” This is exactly who we have been and have become. Once again, we, as a nation, are faced with murder—multiple murders and woundings of our children and staff, while attending and working at school—the most vulnerable of populations in our society.

A few years ago, the American College of Physicians, representing more than 150,000 internal medicine specialists nationwide, issued a position paper imploring stricter gun-control legislation. The National Rifle Association “cautioned,” in a letter to that physicians’ organization, to “stay in their own lane.” Perhaps the NRA might like to join us now, in our lane following the hearses—and to watch as the victims are laid to rest!

A few years ago, the last words of Sandra Parks, a 13-year-old Afro-American girl, may have been, “Mama, I’ve been shot!” as a “stray bullet” came through her bedroom window, killing her. This was another incident resulting from our country’s love affair with firearms, especially to “settle” disputes. What is especially tragic, was that Ms. Parks received an award two years prior, for her essay regarding the toll that violence had been taking in this country, specifically against children, in which she wrote:

“Little children are victims of senseless gun violence … I sit back and I have to escape from what I see and hear every day. When I do; I come to the same conclusion … we are in a state of chaos.”

“Our first truth is that we must start caring about each other. We need to be empathetic and try to walk in each other’s shoes … . We shall overcome, when we love ourselves and the people around us. Then, we become our brothers’ keeper.”

Truer words were never spoken … and from the mouths of babes! Amen!

And now, the question remains: Can we stop talking politics, and start listening to one another as if our childrens’ lives mattered?

Or, will their blood continue to stain our hands?

E.G. Singer lives in Santa Rosa.

Microdose—Size Matters

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Microdose—Size Matters

Cannabis use is evolving in two directions, microdose and maxidose. OK, I made up the word maxidose, but “microdose” is on everyone’s lips these days. I’ll cover the maxidosing phenomenon another time.

It seems as if every week I find myself listening to someone extol the virtues of a little bit of a good thing. Especially us older folks, sitting here at the end of our 40s, slowly realizing that if we want to keep dosing, it’s got to be micro.

The popular CBD:THC 1:1 formulations are often low dosage. One of my personal favorites, the 2.5-milligram THC mints from Petra, sit in many a purse, according to first-hand testimonies told to me. It’s the substitute for an afternoon cup of coffee, without the jitters.

Many chemicals seem to work in microdoses. Psychedelics are being increasingly consumed in micro-amounts. That hit of chocolate that perfectly gets you through the afternoon? Microdose of caffeine, yo.

A recent article in the U.K.’s Guardian: “People ‘microdosing’ on psychedelics to improve wellbeing during pandemic.” The most exciting thing about this article is the survey that suggests “small doses of drugs being taken to treat health issues.” People are doing it for themselves while legalization catches up.

Psychedelics receive a lot of the coverage, and with good reason. More and more studies and patient-work in MFT practice demonstrate the mind-changing value of MDMA, mushrooms and more.

BTW, FYI, JSUK, what used to be “magic mushrooms” are now most commonly called “medicinal mushrooms” among the faithful. See what we did there? It worked with weed. No wonder Oakland and other governments feel emboldened to decriminalize the fungus. There is a whole world of entrepreneurs out there, ready to bust out amazing product innovations. They are working on them right now.

Popular methods of microdosing for mushrooms include the fungus dried, ground and measured into a glycerin pill for a classic rainbow-colored, apocalypse-of-love ’shroom trip. I’m, uh, just guessing.

Others use psilocybin tea bags to start off their day. Others, chocolate—perhaps Burning Man’s second greatest gift to the world, after the Leave No Trace ethos.

For me, too little of a dose actually peaks my anxiety and holds it up for the duration. Which sucks. So tea is out. But the pills evaporate all anxiety. What follows is 3–6 hours of brighter sunlight, deeper connections and greater wonder.

Pure Action, Part Two—Act, Not React

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Pure Action, Part Two—Act, Not React

Our last Spirit column (Dec. 1) examined the concept of “pure action,” especially as a means of finding our way out of crisis.

We noted how in modern life almost all of our activity is spent not in acting but in re-acting to external events: information that may or may not be true, entertainment that is passively consumed, and fulfilling the tasks of work and home life that feel more like putting out fires than kindling the embers of creation.

In contrast to reaction to external circumstances, pure action comes from deep within, from the soul’s realm of will and imagination. It is characterized by two modes that make it an imitation of that form of action attributed to the gods. First, it is done without desire—or any other human passion, such as anger or ego gratification. It’s been said that in order to sculpt David, Michaelangelo simply looked at a block of marble, saw the figure in his mind’s eye and freed it from its stone encasing, with the artist’s hands merely the instruments of divine inspiration. Second, pure action is done for its own sake, without concern—certainly not worry—about what the outcome will be.

A closely related concept that helps us understand how pure action feels is the difference between doing and being. Modern life makes us a cross between intelligent apes and robots, always engaged in some task and completely shut off from the sense of being, that feeling-state that carries within it the sense of eternity. Tradition, on the other hand, teaches us that humans are a microcosm of the universe, and that an intuitive sense of freedom beyond the barriers of space and time is built into our consciousness.

The reason spirit-seekers spend so much time in meditation, contemplation and reflection is that their default mode is this sense of being, and it is from this space that they live and act. When we’re in crisis, the being-state becomes closed off, and the easiest way to escape from identifying with one’s depressed state is the pure act of simply going outside and sitting on a park bench with no intended purpose other than to simply sit and be. Here, by doing nothing, we actually rise to a higher level of existence by simply being, by partaking in all of creation itself. Then we’ll begin to de-identify with our negative emotions, seeing them as mere clouds passing through the sky of consciousness, wholly separate from the being of light at our deepest core, which longs to live and act in liberation.

Unplug

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Unplug

Thinking outside the inbox

Remember when Nirvana played live on MTV Unplugged, but bassist Krist Novoselic looked like he was playing an electric bass? Yeah, that irked me too—for the past 27 years.

I finally looked it up today—the internet is still a marvel in this regard—and learned Novoselic was actually playing a Guild B3OE semi-acoustic bass rented for the occasion.

“Semi-acoustic.” Isn’t that just another way of saying “semi-electric?” Music geeks can musician-splain the difference to me later. Right now, I’m fixated on the fact that Nirvana’s semi-unplugged performance set a precedent for life as we’ve known it since. Few of us are ever completely unplugged these days. 

Case in point, I recently turned on the vacation autoresponder for my work email but found myself still checking it like a voyeur peeping into my own inbox. 

More to the point, people who have received my robot response persist in emailing follow-ups. How did they know I was actually checking my email? Is this compulsion mine alone, or do they share it? I think the pandemic has given us all a rabid case of FOMO on our own lives.

To wit, if I could impart any advice this season, it would be to truly unplug—at least for a moment. And also—stop emailing me.

I finally figured out how to remove my work email from my phone and later learned how to remove my phone from me. Performing my own appendectomy would have been easier. And less bloody.

But once I overcame the withdrawal symptoms of this digital detox—panic, boredom and worse, panic about boredom—I finally arrived at a kind of psychic quietude. Sure, I still heard voices—turns out it wasn’t the earbuds—but at least they were from my own head. I bet.

Since I’m an unabashed workaholic, unplugging from the newspaper biz was only the first phase of attempting to take a break. Like most micro-media-moguls, my professional life is an ever-extending constellation of side hustles—less bright lights, big city; more small town, dim bulb. Unplugging from them en masse would cause the local utility to assume the grid went down. 

Despite my misgivings, I finally ginned up the courage and pulled the plug. And you know what happened? Not a damn thing. The world didn’t end, and my empire was no nearer imploding than usual. Sure, some publicists were flummoxed—but they would be anyway—but on the whole, everything was fine. So do it—unplug—if only for an hour. It may not be the way of our hyper-productive culture, but it will get you that much closer to Nirvana.

Daedalus Howell is semi-acoustic at daedalushowell.com.

Scrooge Sings—‘Christmas Carol’ sequel hits the stage

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Scrooge Sings—‘Christmas Carol’ sequel hits the stage

The ghost of an English author haunts North Bay theaters this holiday season with a couple of Charles Dickens-inspired productions running on local stages. Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse presents the musical, Scrooge in Love!, through Dec. 19.

It’s Christmas Eve again, and Ebenezer Scrooge (Brian Herndon) has spent the past year living a wonderful, generous life after being shown the error of his miserly ways. As he preps for a good night’s sleep, Scrooge is once more interrupted by his chain-laden ex-partner Jacob Marley (Peter Downey) and the three seasonal spirits (Madison Scarbrough, Ezra Hernandez and Stefan Wenger).

It seems their mission of redemption is not complete until Scrooge reunites with his long-lost love Belle (Alanna Weatherby), so a return trip to the past and another venture into the future are undertaken to deliver the ultimate Christmas present.

Brian Herndon is a solid Scrooge, having essayed the role before. Weatherby is appropriately steadfast as the long, supposedly-lost Belle. Downey makes for an imposing Marley, though I wish his entrances and exits were as dramatic as his makeup and costume. Director Jared Sakren has him appear in a simple burp of fog, though this may be a Covid-related adjustment.

There’s a strong supporting cast, with good voices at work here. Hernandez makes for a boisterous Christmas Present ghost, and Scarbrough gets quite the vocal workout as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Wenger does double duty as Christmas Yet-to-Come and as Dick Wilkins, the young Scrooge’s rival for Belle’s affection.

Danny Bañales and Caitlin Strom-Martin bring sugar and spice to the Cratchits. Noah Sternhill does well as the younger, more sympathetic Scrooge. The younger members of the cast acquit themselves quite nicely as various Cratchits and street urchins. Keep an eye on Tyler Ono, who displays a talent and stage presence of which other local directors should take note.

First produced in 2015, Scrooge in Love! is a throwback to old-school musicals, with just a tad bit of self-awareness added for good measure. The book by Duane Poole, and songs by Larry Grossman and Kellen Blair, all honor the spirit of the Dickens original, though its subject matter and appeal is decidedly more adult-oriented.

It’s a nice companion piece to the umpteen film and television versions of A Christmas Carol we’ll be inundated with this season.

“Scrooge in Love!” runs through Dec. 19 in the GK Hardt Theatre at 6th Street Playhouse. 52 W. 6th Street, Santa Rosa. Fri & Sat, 7:30pm; Sat & Sun, 2pm. $22–$38. Proof of vaccination and masking are required to attend. 707.523.4185. 6thstreeetplayhouse.com

Mark West Quarry Faces Hefty Fine for Polluting Salmon Habitat

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Mark West Quarry Faces Hefty Fine for Polluting Salmon Habitat

A Sonoma County mining company faces a $4.5 million fine for allegedly allowing over 10 million gallons of tainted water to flow into a creek, damaging the habitat of endangered salmon.

In a September press release, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board announced that, at a Dec. 2 meeting, the agency’s board would consider approving a $4.5 million fine against the BoDean Company, Inc. for numerous alleged violations of the Clean Water Act at the company’s Mark West Quarry several years ago. The North Coast water board is one of nine similar boards around the state charged with enforcing a variety of environmental laws.

Water Board staff first identified the problem in December 2018, when they noticed “sediment-laden stormwater” in Porter Creek downstream from the 120-acre quarry, which is used for hard-rock mining and materials processing. Over the next five months, Water Board officials visited the quarry 15 times total, documenting numerous similar incidents. All told, Water Board prosecutors estimate that 10.5 million gallons of tainted water flowed from the mountainside quarry into Porter Creek, which feeds into the Russian River.

Water Board photographs show that the investigators repeatedly discovered cloudy waters, known as “turbid” in Water Board lingo, emanating from the BoDean quarry. The creek serves as habitat for endangered California steelhead trout and Coho salmon, and the sediments flowing from the quarry could put those creatures at risk.

“Abnormally high levels of sediment in surface waters can smother aquatic animals and habitats; alter or obstruct flows, resulting in flooding; and reduce water clarity, which makes it difficult for organisms to breathe, find food and refuge, and reproduce,” the Water Board’s September press release states.

Photo by Josh Luders/North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board

In September, Water Board staff planned to send the $4.5 million fine for a vote at a Dec. 2 board meeting. However, in an interview, Claudia E. Villacorta, the assistant executive officer of the regional Water Board, said that BoDean has since agreed to enter negotiations with water officials.

Villacorta says that during the negotiation process, BoDean will have a chance to present evidence that may reduce the amount of the fine, as well as negotiate a payment plan. The company may also propose completing what is known as a “supplemental environmental project.” In that case, the company would partner with a nonprofit or government agency to build a project to environmentally benefit the watershed instead of paying a fine.

The Water Board expects to release an announcement about the results of the negotiations within the next month or two, according to Villacorta.

In addition to paying the fine, BoDean is expected to bring the quarry into compliance with Water Board regulations moving forward. According to the Water Board, the millions of gallons of runoff would have been avoidable if BoDean had followed the requirements of their permit. Instead, the Water Board says that the company did not comply with the permit’s requirements, resulting in the excessive runoff and, in turn, the hefty fine.

“Had the quarry operator complied with the storm water permit, impacts to water quality could have been avoided. The proposed fine reflects the extent of those impacts and the operator’s failure to implement minimum practices established in the permit,” Villacorta said in the Water Board’s September statement.

Photo by Paul Nelson/North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board

Dean Soiland, an owner of BoDean Co., and Sean Hungerford, an attorney representing the company, did not respond to requests for comment. However, at an August Water Board meeting, Hungerford said that BoDean is working on the problem.

At the same meeting, two Water Board members expressed frustration about the BoDean company’s track record at the quarry.

“I think you would do your client a great service to remind them of the seriousness of the vote that we just took … there’s a history of notice of violations, there’s a history of being slow to react. This board does not take [it] lightly if its authority is ignored, and our track record shows that, so this is kind of the last straw, and we hope that your client takes this action seriously and does the right thing for his sake and for the sake of the public,” Board Chair Gregory Giusti told Hungerford.

“I do just want to assure this board that my client does take this matter seriously and has already set several wheels in motion to make sure that we don’t have a meeting like this again,” Hungerford responded. “I think by this time next year everyone involved will have a different sense about the site and where we stand with respect to compliance.”

The $4.5 million fine under consideration by the Water Board is larger than most, but not the largest. Last December, the regional board approved a $6.4 million fine against Sonoma Luxury Resort LLC, a company constructing the ritzy Montage Healdsburg hotel, for allegedly failing to prevent 9.4 million gallons of sediment-laden water from flowing into creeks, which feed into the Russian River.

Water board inspectors visited the Mark West Quarry on Oct. 25, just after a major rainstorm drenched the North Bay. According to a report from the visit, BoDean has made infrastructure improvements to the quarry but will remain on a watch list until runoff from the facility tests clean in four consecutive major storms.

Will Carruthers is a news reporter for the Pacific Sun and North Bay Bohemian. Email tips to wc*********@*****ys.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Carruthers_W.

Letters to the Editor—Right to Life, Freedom to Vote

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Letters to the Editor—Right to Life, Freedom to Vote

Freedom to Vote

Other than for my post-high school education, I have been a resident of Marin County since 1962. Politicians are currently trying to modify voting maps for advantages in elections; this is gerrymandering and SHOULD NOT BE LEGAL, as it alters the outcome of the elections, thereby preventing the voice of our people from being heard and, consequently, damaging some of the most important aspects of our democracy! 

We need federal reforms to ensure fair maps throughout our country! The Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will end partisan gerrymandering and ensure that voting maps are more fair, transparent and nonpartisan!

Senators Feinstein and Padilla are good people who are trying to do the right things for our country and our people. They need to deliver the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to ensure more fair, transparent and nonpartisan maps!!

James Barkovich

Marin County

Right to Life

I am angry at the so-called “Right to Life” movement. It’s time for a major reality check for those claiming to be fighting for the rights of the unborn.

Every day 10,000 children worldwide die horribly painful deaths from starvation. And with each passing day our planet approaches the point where the massive starvation of children will become epidemic because of global warming and the resulting breakdown of the world’s agriculture. In addition, the continuing spread of nuclear weapons and deadly tensions among the world’s major superpowers threaten all the children on this Earth—born, unborn and ever to be born.

It’s time for the “Right to Life” movement to return to the real world from their “holier-than-thou” conservative Christian idealism. Who truly cares for the unborn people of the world?

Rama Kumar

Fairfax

Where the Metals Meet—A Conversation with Metalworker and Creatrix Tanya Marsh

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Where the Metals Meet—A Conversation with Metalworker and Creatrix Tanya Marsh

Many good things came out of the pandemic. Life is like that—always somehow balancing its own generative and destructive scales. Throughout the shutdown, during the year-and-change we’ve spent locked down in our own homes, metalworker Tanya Marsh set a long-time dream in motion, establishing her own metalworking studio, where she crafts custom pieces of welded steelwork while planning to partner with a nonprofit to offer youth internships. 

Fascinated by metal since childhood, Marsh trained and was certified as a welder at Cal-Trade Welding School in Sacramento in 1997. Throughout her life, through circumstance and shift, she worked with metal in various different capacities—welding components as varied as cement-mixing trailers and 1-inch steel plates for breast cancer–radiation machines. This is the first time she’s been able to pursue her artistic vision full time, and this Monday I spent some time discussing the milestone with her.

Jane Vick — So, first of all, congratulations, Tanya. This is a wonderful achievement. How did you come to find metal as your medium?

Tanya Marsh — Well, it was my father, really, and my grandfather. They were incredible creatives; they could fix anything. So, having that in my realm, and being able to go hang out in the garage with them and see them rebuild something from what was a pile of rust into something workable again really sparked the fascination for me. And then, in college, I got my own hands on metal, and was invited to use my imagination, and it really took off from there. But the idea of being able to make a living doing art was put off at that time—I thought of it more as fun. And I dabbled in it again in my 30s when I got my own studio, but then I got pregnant and had to take time off again.

[Tanya is here referring to a college assignment in which she was asked to weld something she’d want to live in, and she welded a ¼-inch oyster shell out of a metal bar. Also, when she refers to having finally gotten her own studio, it is because, while she was working on metal plates for breast cancer–treatment machines, a car going the wrong way down a one-way street hit her head on. The settlement left her able to invest in her own metalworking studio—another example of the balance found between generation and destruction.]

J.V. — So why metal, over any other medium? What does it feel like for you when you work with it?

T.M. — Well, you know, I build a lot of things with wood also, and I love wood, it’s gorgeous. I love the outcome, I love the finished product, but it is hard to work with, and metal is surprisingly easier. And its measurements are accurate; a 2×4 is actually a 2×4. And maybe it’s because I’m a water sign—it’s something that really grounds me—and that it’s something solid that can be formed into anything, with endless possibility, that’s what is so magical about it for me.

J.V. — And the name, Where The Metals Meet, where did that come from?

T.M. — My husband took me on a trip years ago to a place called Watersmeet, in the Sylvania Wilderness. The area is so beautiful, and it’s the heart of where we live on Turtle Island, and it really resonated with me. And when I’m welding, it’s where those metals are coming together, that spark, that moment of union that resonates with me. And it just made so much sense, when I was trying to sort out what the best direction was to take this in, because that’s what it’s all about and that’s what it is for me—that point where the metals are meeting, and the spark that creates the magic there.

J.V. — That’s a beautiful naming story. I’m glad I asked. And you’re hoping to partner with a nonprofit to fund internships, is that right?

T.M. — That is my goal, yes. To share knowledge in a space that I cannot provide, but where it’s already available and the connections are there in the community. I’m hoping to find the right partnership and space to hopefully go in and design workshops, empowering youth with the skills to move into the metal world. There weren’t any female welders while I was learning, and I want to empower not only youth, but women, and LGBTQ youth and teens looking to learn metalwork in a safe and inclusive space.

J.V. — So, you would teach them welding, not necessarily as an art form, but as a professional skill?

T.M. — Exactly. I wouldn’t necessarily provide them with a certification, but [with] the understanding of basic shop skills and hand tools, and a sense of whether or not this is a field they want to work in. And if so, they can go to a future employer with the skills they need already well developed. Or maybe they do move into art—and you can totally make a living doing art, which is something we need to advocate more for.

J.V. — And is there anything in particular that you feel, or seek to convey, in this next iteration of your work with metal?

T.M. — Yes, I do want to share that the pieces that I create are meant to connect us, and to help us see or feel something a little bit differently. That invitation is built into my pieces.

Tanya’s connection to the spark that welds two pieces of metal together—creating from two individual pieces a cohesive manifestation of an idea—possesses an alchemical quality. She intends for her work to reignite that magic within her community. Despite health challenges—including her car accident, and struggles with celiac  and microscopic colitis—she always finds her way back to metal. She is now able to both bring her long-percolating concepts to fruition and to share her craft with the next generation of metalworkers—keeping, despite the stacked odds of this increasingly technological world, the art of handcraft alive. Find her work and connect with her at wherethemetalsmeet.com

Culture Crush—Christmas Classics at the Raven, Corte Madera Library Celebration, and More

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Culture Crush—Christmas Classics at the Raven, Corte Madera Library Celebration, and More

Online

Landmark Library

The Corte Madera Library celebrates 50 years at its location on Meadowsweet Drive, and the beloved book lender marks the occasion with an online presentation from local luminary Jana Haehl. A resident of the town since 1963, Haehl was elected to the Town Council three times and served two terms as mayor of Corte Madera. She is also the co-founder of the Corte Madera Community Foundation, and past president of the Marin Conservation League and other groups. Haehl gives a talk on the library’s past and present activities on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 6:30pm. Free. marinlibrary.org.

Healdsburg 

Double the Joy

Not satisfied with producing one holiday show, the Raven Performing Arts Theater presents two Christmastime classics on stage. First, five actors will portray over 40 roles in the live-radio play of It’s a Wonderful Life, adapting the classic movie into a new experience featuring live sound effects, and even a few catchy commercial jingles, opening Thursday, Dec. 9. Additionally, the theater presents the funny family show, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, opening Friday, Dec. 10. The shows run on alternating dates through Dec. 19 at Raven Performing Arts Theater, 115 North St., Healdsburg. Times vary. $10–$25. raventheater.org.

Ross

Gift of Dickens

Marin Art & Garden’s holiday schedule of community gatherings continues this weekend with a special, staged reading of the Charles Dickens’ classic story, A Christmas Story, presented in cooperation with long-running theater company Ross Valley Players. Directed by Billie Cox, the production boasts a cast drawn from actors from the spectrum of Marin theaters, including Ross Valley Players, Marin Theater Company, College of Marin Drama and others. A Christmas Carol is presented outdoors on Saturday, Dec. 11, at Marin Art & Garden Center’s redwood amphitheater, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. 11am and 2pm. $5–$10. Maringarden.org.

Santa Rosa

Show of Support

In Sonoma County, the Stop All Government Evictions (SAGE) campaign is urging the Board of Supervisors to pass a moratorium on Permit Sonoma evictions of low-income renters, including renters living in trailers, yurts, tents or tiny homes. Seventy-year-old musician Copperwoman Saso is one of those renters, and her tiny home—with its composting toilet—was red-tagged by Permit Sonoma in August. Now facing thousands of dollars in fines, Saso performs a benefit concert with Andy and Bob Culbertson to support SAGE and ease her own burden on Sunday, Dec. 12, at Arlene Francis Center, 99 6th St., Santa Rosa. 1pm. Sonomaindependent.org.

—Charlie Swanson

Free Will Astrology

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Free Will Astrology

Week of December 8

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) was experimental and innovative and influential. His imagery was often dreamlike, and his themes were metaphysical. He felt that the most crucial aspect of his creative process was his faith. If he could genuinely believe in the work he was doing, he was sure he’d succeed at even the most improbable projects. But that was a challenge for him. “There is nothing more difficult to achieve than a passionate, sincere, quiet faith,” he said. In accordance with your astrological omens during the next 12 months, Aries, I suggest you draw inspiration from his approach. Cultivating a passionate, sincere, quiet faith will be more attainable than it has ever been.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware,” said philosopher Martin Buber. How true! I would add that the traveler is wise to prepare for the challenges and opportunities of those secret destinations . . . and be alert for them if they appear . . . and treat them with welcome and respect, not resistance and avoidance. When travelers follow those protocols, they are far more likely to be delightfully surprised than disappointingly surprised. Everything I just said will apply to you in the coming weeks, Taurus.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini sleight-of-hand artist Apollo Robinson may be the best and most famous pickpocket in the world. Fortunately, he uses his skill for entertainment purposes only. He doesn’t steal strangers’ money and valuables from their pockets and purses and jackets. On one occasion, while in the company of former President Jimmy Carter, he pilfered multiple items from a Secret Service agent assigned to protect Carter. He gave the items back, of course. It was an amusing and humbling lesson that inspired many law-enforcement officials to seek him out as a consultant. I suspect that in the coming weeks, you may have comparable abilities to trick, fool, beguile and enchant. I hope you will use your superpowers exclusively to carry out good deeds and attract inviting possibilities.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Many sportswriters regard Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player ever. He was the Most Valuable Player five times and had a higher scoring average than anyone else who has ever played. And yet he confesses, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life.” He says the keys to his success are his familiarity with bungles and his determination to keep going despite his bungles. I invite you to meditate on Jordan’s example in the coming days.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his poem “Song of Poplars,” Leo author Aldous Huxley speaks to a stand of poplar trees. He asks them if they are an “agony of undefined desires.” Now I will pose the same question to you, Leo. Are you an agony of undefined desires? Or are you a treasury of well-defined desires? I hope it’s the latter. But if it’s not, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to fix the problem. Learning to be precise about the nature of your longings is your growing edge, your frontier. Find out more about what you want, please.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Black is your lucky color for the foreseeable future. I invite you to delve further than ever before into its mysteries and meanings and powers. I encourage you to celebrate blackness and honor blackness and nurture blackness in every way you can imagine. For inspiration, meditate on how, in art, black is the presence of all colors. In printing, black is a color needed to produce other colors. In mythology, blackness is the primal source of all life and possibility. In psychology, blackness symbolizes the rich unconscious core from which all vitality emerges.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the first season of the animated TV series, South Park, its two creators produced an episode called “Make Love, Not Warcraft.” The story lovingly mocked nerds and the culture of online gaming. Soon after sending his handiwork to executive producers, Libran co-creator Trey Parker decided it was a terrible show that would wreck his career. He begged for it to be withheld from broadcast. But the producers ignored his pleas. That turned out to be a lucky break. The episode ultimately won an Emmy Award and became popular with fans. I foresee the possibility of comparable events in your life, Libra. Don’t be too sure you know which of your efforts will work best.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Nobel Prize-winning Scorpio author André Gide (1869–1951) had an unusual relationship with his wife Madeline Rondeaux. Although married for 43 years, they never had sex. As long as she was alive, he never mentioned her in his extensive writings. But after she died, he wrote a book about their complex relationship. Here’s the best thing he ever said about her: “I believe it was through her that I drew the need for truthfulness and sincerity.” I’d love for you to be lit up by an influence like Madeline Rondeaux, Scorpio. I’d be excited for you to cultivate a bond with a person who will inspire your longing to be disarmingly candid and refreshingly genuine. If there are no such characters in your life, go looking for them. If there are, deepen your connection.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A fashion company called Tibi sells a silver mini-dress that features thousands of sequins. It’s also available in gold. I wonder if the designers were inspired by poet Mark Doty’s line: “No such thing, the queen said, as too many sequins.” In my astrological estimation, the coming weeks will be a fun time to make this one of your mottoes. You will have a poetic license to be flashy, shiny, bold, swanky, glittery, splashy, sparkling and extravagant. If expressing such themes in the way you dress isn’t appealing, embody more metaphorical versions.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “I have pasts inside me I did not bury properly,” writes Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo. Isn’t that true for each of us? Don’t we all carry around painful memories as if they were still fresh and current? With a little work, we could depotentize at least some of them and consign them to a final resting place where they wouldn’t nag and sting us anymore. The good news, Capricorn, is that the coming weeks will be an excellent time to do just that: bury any pasts that you have not properly buried before now.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In February 1967, the Beatles recorded their album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in London. A man claiming to be Jesus Christ convinced Paul McCartney to let him weasel his way into the studio. McCartney later said that he was pretty sure it wasn’t the real Jesus. But if by some remote chance it was, he said, he didn’t want to make a big mistake. I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I suspect that comparable events may be brewing in your vicinity. My advice: Don’t assume you already know who your teachers and helpers are. Here’s the relevant verse from the Bible: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): According to Professor of Classics Anne Carson, ancient Greek author Homer “suggested we stand in time with our backs to the future, face to the past.” And why would we do that? To “search for the meaning of the present—scanning history and myth for a precedent.” I bring this to your attention, Pisces, because I think you should avoid such an approach in the coming months. In my view, the next chapter of your life story will be so new, so unpredicted, that it will have no antecedents, no precursory roots that might illuminate its plot and meaning. Your future is unprecedented.

[Editor: Here’s this week’s homework:]
Homework Send your predictions for the new year—both for yourself and the world. https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology

State of Chaos—Gun violence stains U.S.

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“Who is the slayer, who the victim? Speak.” —Sophocles Please don’t respond again with the outworn phrase, “This is not who we are.” This is exactly who we have been and have become. Once again, we, as a nation, are faced with murder—multiple murders and woundings of our children and staff, while attending and working at school—the most vulnerable of...
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Microdose—Size Matters

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Cannabis use is evolving in two directions, microdose and maxidose. OK, I made up the word maxidose, but “microdose” is on everyone’s lips these days. I’ll cover the maxidosing phenomenon another time. It seems as if every week I find myself listening to someone extol the virtues of a little bit of a good thing. Especially us older folks, sitting...
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Pure Action, Part Two—Act, Not React

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Our last Spirit column (Dec. 1) examined the concept of “pure action,” especially as a means of finding our way out of crisis. We noted how in modern life almost all of our activity is spent not in acting but in re-acting to external events: information that may or may not be true, entertainment that is passively consumed, and fulfilling...
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Unplug

Thinking outside the inbox Remember when Nirvana played live on MTV Unplugged, but bassist Krist Novoselic looked like he was playing an electric bass? Yeah, that irked me too—for the past 27 years. I finally looked it up today—the internet is still a marvel in this regard—and learned Novoselic was actually playing a Guild B3OE semi-acoustic bass rented for the occasion. “Semi-acoustic.”...
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Scrooge Sings—‘Christmas Carol’ sequel hits the stage

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The ghost of an English author haunts North Bay theaters this holiday season with a couple of Charles Dickens-inspired productions running on local stages. Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse presents the musical, Scrooge in Love!, through Dec. 19. It’s Christmas Eve again, and Ebenezer Scrooge (Brian Herndon) has spent the past year living a wonderful, generous life after being shown...
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Mark West Quarry Faces Hefty Fine for Polluting Salmon Habitat

Porter Creek - Photo by Josh Luders/North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
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Letters to the Editor—Right to Life, Freedom to Vote

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Freedom to Vote Other than for my post-high school education, I have been a resident of Marin County since 1962. Politicians are currently trying to modify voting maps for advantages in elections; this is gerrymandering and SHOULD NOT BE LEGAL, as it alters the outcome of the elections, thereby preventing the voice of our people from being heard and, consequently,...
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Where the Metals Meet—A Conversation with Metalworker and Creatrix Tanya Marsh

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Many good things came out of the pandemic. Life is like that—always somehow balancing its own generative and destructive scales. Throughout the shutdown, during the year-and-change we’ve spent locked down in our own homes, metalworker Tanya Marsh set a long-time dream in motion, establishing her own metalworking studio, where she crafts custom pieces of welded steelwork while planning to...
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Culture Crush—Christmas Classics at the Raven, Corte Madera Library Celebration, and More

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Online Landmark Library The Corte Madera Library celebrates 50 years at its location on Meadowsweet Drive, and the beloved book lender marks the occasion with an online presentation from local luminary Jana Haehl. A resident of the town since 1963, Haehl was elected to the Town Council three times and served two terms as mayor of Corte Madera. She is also...
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Free Will Astrology

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Week of December 8 ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) was experimental and innovative and influential. His imagery was often dreamlike, and his themes were metaphysical. He felt that the most crucial aspect of his creative process was his faith. If he could genuinely believe in the work he was doing, he was sure he’d succeed at...
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