How sound a mind? How sound a body?

Research proves that learning new skills, multi-tasking and keeping active builds new synapse or pathways in the brain.  Sort of a reverse on “teaching old dogs new tricks.”  Research also proves that physical activity including cardio and strength work outs helps us keep our balance, improve bone density and keeps us healthier longer.  Of course we can quote Rita Ruder who said that the word aerobics came about when the gym instructors got together and said, "If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it jumping up and down.“

Writing this blog is part of my new skills regime.  Coming up with readable language on subjects relative to the Los Angeles Turners and with some interest to others requires reaching into my ethnic depths and exploring lexiconic heights. 

My work out regimen, while progressing beyond the ouch stage, now produces those feel-good endorphins, but is not yet something I have budgeted time for.  While it’s making me feel taller by the day, it’s still hard to do it as regularly as I should.        

All this leads up to how sound a mind in a sound body do I really need?  Am I doing too much or not enough?  Is sitting down to read for an hour or watch TV a waste of time?  Is spreading myself across several non-profit boards excessive?  I’m sleeping perfectly, my diet is quite healthy.  Am I becoming obsessive?  Is sounding my mind and body becoming addictive?  Of course not, it’s all part of being retired – not enough time in the day.

Why then, did I actually pour water into the toaster instead of the coffee pot?

A JOYFUL NOISE

On Sunday the 26^th of March a joyful noise filled the Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach.  Ordinarily and regularly, beautiful noise is made by the choir.  Occasionally and surprisingly, hot and cool noise is performed there by parishioner, Dewey Erney who sings the American Song Book.  Extraordinarily and only occasionally will the music of Franz Josef Haydn’s The Creation be celebrated by the voices of the Long Beach Chorale and instruments of the Long Beach Chamber Orchestra.

While the orchestra started off a bit reedy in tone I think that “in the beginning” there probably wasn’t as much moisture as was presented to us during the passing storm system.  The first soloist began the oratorio with skill and direction.  Then the magic happened – the chorus burst forth proclaiming “Let there be light.”  Seventy voices sang as one.   I had goose bumps which continued throughout the program. 

Eliza Rubenstein, the Chorale and Orchestra’s artistic director, magnificently provided this experience.  True to the original concept, Rubenstein even managed to bring a fortepiano into the church.  In a program footnote, we were told that the fortepiano, the most immediate ancestor of the modern grand piano, is smaller in size and lighter in touch than today’s instruments.  This particular fortepiano was built in 1825 by Broadwood & Sons piano factory in London, the same company who rented Haydn a similar instrument for the London premiere of The Creation in 1800.    Rubenstein also provided insightful commentaries alongside the recitatives and arias.

While George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah (containing the well-known Alleluia chorus) is probably performed more often and with a massive number of voices and instruments; Handel composed it rather more simply and it has taken on a new persona.  The Creation, however, was this weekend, performed as it was written by Haydn and the beautiful noise resulting came from the performers’ love of the music.   If you missed it, bookmark the group’s website so you can be in line for their next joyful noise.  http://www.longbeachchorale.org/

For additional information on the composer, a full description of the work and other information Wikipedia is an excellent source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_(Haydn)

The loss of one...

An acquaintance of mine died.  A young man, handsome and talented, died by his own hand.  A man with a large circle of friends left without saying goodbye.  Maybe, in fact, he did say goodbye, but in a silent way unheard by many and ignored by others.  Those of us who remain ask, silently or aloud, why?  There was no explanation left on paper to tell us.

The Turner motto and mission – A Sound Mind in a Sound Body – seems to be at complete odds with suicide.  Of course it is.  If you were in sound mind you would not end your life.  On the other hand, when the body becomes so unsound that medical devices are required to keep it alive the advance medical directive kicks in.  Pull the plug. 

Mental health professionals believe that people attempting to end their own lives really only wish to sleep until the problem resolves itself.    Many religious people believe after death we awaken to a trouble and pain free experience. 

We know our lives are full of choices.  Individually and collectively we make decisions every of every day.  So, for today, appreciate the beauty, talent, love and the time we had with Johnny.   While the loss of one diminishes us all, we were exceptionally fortunate to have known him.

One year ago today

Today, March 11^th, marks the one-year anniversary of the triple catastrophe that struck Japan.    To those that grieve, my heart aches with yours.  To those searching for remnants of the life now gone, my spirit blends with yours.  To those looking towards the future, I rejoice with you.

American TV is showing us pictures of Japan last year and this year.  Is it even possible for us here to conceive of what remains to be done?  Mountains exist – made of what were people’s homes and workplaces.   Empty frames stand like skeletons – the remains of what were children’s schools.

The size of the Japanese islands it only 21,607 square miles smaller than California.  I’m imaging Los Angeles County turning to rubble and wondering where in the state would we put all that cannot be reused.  How do you recycle such devastation?  In Long Beach where I live we annually collected trash – not by choice, but because the cities up stream of the San Gabriel River allowed street debris to wash into the sewer system.  The amounts piled up each year where the river meets the sea resulted in a major clean-up, a tremendous expense and harm to wildlife.  If that boggled my mind, dealing with the resultant waste piles in Japan is like contemplating space – no end in sight. 

Everyday concerns are now focused on what’s safe to eat.  One report I read detailed the everyday search for food products not coming from an area that had nuclear contamination.  We wonder if the field workers washed their hands thoroughly before picking our broccoli.

Last year the Los Angeles Turners were able to activate the German-American community.  The amount of money sent, insignificant compared to the continually mounting costs, did express our feelings and concerns for the Japanese people.  Today, the best we can do is to remember.  So, to two special people in Japan, Riki and Yuki, I send love, strength and much hope.  To those of us here, take a moment today, please do remember. 

TANGO-a new twist for a sound mind in a sound body

Milonga:  According to Wikipedia, Milonga is a term for a place or an event where tango is danced. People who frequently go to Milonga are sometimes called milongueros.  I suppose that attending one Milonga does not qualify me to be identified as a milonguera, but I’m ready to try it again.   Yesterday, Sunday 3/4, L. A. Turners and Ilona Glinarsky co-hosted a Milonga at our Center. 

Several amazing things evolved from this extraordinary dancing event.   First, I admitted to myself that I’m more suited to dances other than ones that require legs that go on forever.  A friend of mine, lovingly and thankfully infrequently, calls me Stumpy-a sort of 8^th Dwarf-ish friend of Snow White.  Second, despite the fact that stumps do not suddenly sprout, I want to learn this amazing and mesmerizing blending of musically induced/societally acceptable body blending.  The music is alluring, the intensity of the milongueros palpable and the results amazing.

About 100 people were present with about 35 or 40 arriving for the first hour in which a free lesson was given.  The long legs and some mysteriously intense-looking men arrived later.  Ilona put all the Tango Trainees through an initiation.  The explanation of Tango being a feeling before being a dance was a difficult concept and by the looks on many faces it’s obvious we need another lesson.  However, amateur passion notwithstanding, by the end of the hour we were rather blended, semi-intense but actually tango-ing.  Several of us boldly proclaimed that when we purchased the right shoes we would (pick one) have great legs, graceful gliding ability, restored youth, Latin passion and of course one of those mysteriously intense looking partners who would magically make it all happen. 

When the next Milonga is scheduled at the Turner Center, I’ll be sure to blog its date and time.  Meanwhile, you can do some homework by watching, Scent of a Woman, True Lies, Evita, Assassination Tango (this one is a rather unknown move in which Robert Duval proves the exception to the rule:  mysteriously un-intense looking men with bowed legs make excellent tango dancers.) or any number of movies in which Tango is impassionedly performed. 

See you on the dance floor.

CONFESSION OF A LAZY TURNER

             

Difficult as it is to admit, I am a lazy Turner.  Sure I’m involved.  Absolutely I try to maintain good health.  Certainly I exercise my mind.  But that aging body…OMG as the youngsters say, needs more attention than it’s been getting – exercise-wise.  Rubbing on lotion is not exercise.  Thinking about getting into my pool as soon as the warm weather arrives is not exercise.  Strolling down Main Street for breakfast at Ruby’s is not exercise.  Lotions and potions can serve a purpose.  A one mile walk before a meal does curb the appetite a bit.  Even that all out 2 mile walk with the cardio work out up the hill has benefits.  But actually focusing on specific areas for particular reasons is another thing entirely.

On Monday I had one of those freak episodes, you know the one, you bend or turn or something and the pain in your lower back knocks you for a loop.  Attempting to become erect is almost impossible.  Walking without appearing to have a rod jammed up ones backside is futile.

You know that commercial that says, “We have an app for that!”  Well guess what folks, we Turners have an exercise for that!!!  Not only will I enhance muscles on the other side of the ache, but improve my balance.  Not only will I be toning and firming, I will be creating new synapses so important to us of a certain age group.  Not only all that, but I will be aching elsewhere too!

While our Phys Ed master, Mesfin, says all the right things about time, benefits, pain/gain, blah, blah,  blah, maybe Ben Gay will become the lotion of choice.  I am, however, committed to see what I can do to get that sound body back.    

My time out is over, back to the exercises.

Turner Action

    Having introduced Physical Education and Gymnastics to the United States beginning in about 1848, Turners across the nation designed programs of phys. ed. and taught the instructors the correct methods of implementing this unique concept.  I suppose that, like today, people were caught up with their own lives, felt they expended enough energy by simply working hard at their jobs and that kids at play were active enough.  About the only similarity to those times not present today is that gym classes could not be a budget line item - after all, those classes didn't exist quite yet.

     Today, when childhood obesity is at record highs, sedentary yet stressful video games have replaced sport and parents are working dawn to dusk not plowing fields but pushing paper or searching for employment, school districts across the nation are cutting gym classes.  Art and music having already been eliminated, what was left?  How about history?  Oh wait, some school districts are cutting back on that too announcing that there is too much history to learn so let’s start somewhere other than the beginning.  Oh wait, which beginning?  But I digress from the topic – Physical Education.

     The Los Angeles Turners have decided that it is time to return to our own beginnings and conduct physical education again and not only for ourselves, but for school children in Los Angeles.  Our pilot program will be open for students effective February 27^th and offers weekly 3 hour long classes for 9-1/2 to 13 year olds and 2 hour long classes for 6-1/2 to 9 year olds each week.  Classes will be held at the Goethe International Charter School as an enrichment program.  When successful, we stand ready to expand into which ever Los Angeles Public School wishes to join.  A Sound Mind in a Sound Body – a great concept, valid then and now.

     I wish to thank many individuals for supporting this project:  first the ever patient and most competent Physical Education Chair of the L. A. Turners, Mesfin Felleke; the concerned and active parents of the Goethe International Charter School’s students along with their forward thinking principal; and members of Los Angeles Turners who have so generously enabled the program with their financial assistance along with our Board of Directors who have supported this activity.

     Want to support this?  Visit www.laturners.org.