GRMC alumni at front entrance (left to right): Dr. Sunil Mathew, Dr. Inder RS Makin, Dr. Praneal Sharma, Dr. Kayemba-Kay’s Simon, Dr. Jaspreet Brar, Dr. Shahin Nooreyezdan, and Dr. Jay Maharaj
Seven distinguished medical professionals returned to their college tracks at the Gwalior Medical College, Madhya Pradesh, India, after 45 years in international career tracks: Reconstructive Surgeon Dr. Shahin Nooreyedzan, New Delhi; Radiologist Dr. Praneal Sharma, Sydney, Australia; Psychiatrist Dr. Jaspreet Brar, Pittsburgh, USA; Hepatologist Dr. Sunil Mathew, Kochi, Kerala; Pediatrician Dr. Kayemba-Kay’s Kabangu Simon (native of Democratic Republic of Congo), from France; Biomedical Engineer Prof. Dr. Inder Raj Singh Makin, Phoenix, Arizona; and Family Physician Dr. Jay C Maharaj from Durban, South Africa.
The international group of doctors, most accompanied by their supportive spouses, retraced their college experience. They visited the various departments at GRMC campus, where college Dean Dr. R.K.S. Dhakar received the alumni in his conference room. The international group also chanced upon a dear colleague from the old days, Dr. Ranjna Tiwari, Professor of Community Health and expert sitar player.
“I had to take this young man under my wings back then, because he didn’t speak a word of Hindi,” Dr. Tiwari said about Dr. Maharaj, from South Africa. The Gwalior professor was bowled over with affection.
A number more surprises were sprung on the seven Gwalior alumni. Jaikishen (a.k.a “Jack”) chai stand was now surrounded by high volume traffic and the trees were missing, but the pakora, samosas, and chai were still delicious. A memorable photograph was recreated at the Talkatora pool location after 45 years, each doctor modeling the former pose of studious interest.
During the course of two days, the medical professionals went down memory lane swapping stories of mischief and accomplishments. The city had changed a lot but eventually each alumnus sleuthed out their former abodes. The seven GRMC exes, who had been planning this joint outing for the last five years, bonded even more strongly over this exciting endeavor.
“I can’t get over the fact that this feels like yesterday. But we are sure glad not to be staying in the dorms any more,” Dr. Nooreyedzan joked. Whew! His colleagues agreed with him wholeheartedly. They all had accomplished their specialties coming from the rigorous training ground of GRMC’s medical degree program.
I have many reasons for being unable to break out of anonymity. But the most telling one lies in my childhood.
When I was four years old, my parents took us to the zoo. It was spring time. Somewhere around the miniature goats, there was a green activity patch: May bug hunt. Instead of Easter eggs, the activity team had laid out lifelike chocolate bugs wrapped in printed tin foils. At a shot gun start, they let a bunch of us kids inside that corral. I picked up a bug and proudly showed it off to my parents.
“Run,” they yelled. “Get more!” But I was too slow for that. In 30 seconds, all the bugs were picked. It hadn’t occurred to me that I could take more than one treat. My parents were disappointed. I should have gotten at least five chocolate bugs for the 1 Mark fee they had paid.
This childhood May bug story only just starts to describe my predicament. I thought about it long and hard and came up with at least 13 reasons why I can’t be famous:
I am in a slow, contemplative gear by nature.
I am a perfectionist and my projects take a while to get them just right.
I am too nice and let other people go first.
I was raised to take turns and believe other people would do so too.
I was never taught to be greedy.
I abhor risk and gamble.
I hate bragging and lying.
I dislike small talk and public appearances in general.
I cringe at social media and the commitment to post.
I am bad at business and calculating my profit.
I missed the boat 20 years ago because now everybody is famous.
I am too old to spark the flame of fame.
I get stage fright.
My comfort zone gets disturbed easily.
Who’s got time for this?
I got better things to do. Maybe I don’t even like being famous.
NOTE: This poem by Priyanka, written in 2013 in high school, floored me when I rediscovered it in the keepsake box. Proud parent thinks, Little Genius in the Makin’
As I wander through the forest,
The warm sun rests on my shoulders;
The playful blades of grass reach up to my ankles.
The tall, tower-like trees stretch upward
And tickle the lonesome sky;
The sky has no friends to chase
On this cloudless day.
I see the flowers lean left and right
To get a good look at the magnificent trees;
The pine needles from above
Sprinkle down their spicy smell like fairy dust.
The mountain breeze climbs up my spine
And weaves through my hair;
He races through the trees
As all the leaves cheer for him.
A scripted butterfly lands
On the trunk of the tallest tree,
Basking in its glory;
The baby trees, standing straight and proud
In the shadows of their parents,
Know they can also, one day, achieve their greatness.
And as I witnessed the small trees
Standing as straight as can be, I thought to myself
No matter how small I start off, I can achieve magnitude.
The Bandana Book II was well received at the launch party. Thirty guests with international backgrounds celebrated the UNUSUAL ENCOUNTERS in the newest Bandana edition. With 24 delightful stories, the new Bandana Book is bigger and better than the first. Hopefully, it keeps going.
People came from just as many countries as backgrounds. We had a lot of amazing talent from India, Sri Lanka, Germany, Peru, Finland, Colombia, Latvia, cross-USA, and even home-grown Arizona talent. Let’s see where all the bandana stories and guests come from.
DAN BALDWIN, Bandana Author
is a prolific Mesa writer, ghostwriter, author, public speaker. He has two new titles out:
“My new how-to book on writing, I’m Looking for People Who Can’t Write Good – Random Brilliance, Brainstorms and Blogs on Writing is now available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover.
My latest paranormal non-fiction book will be released by the end of June –The Sky People and Our Ancestors. I’ll be appearing on podcasts Conflict Radio,on Shifting Paradigms In Medicine, and on The Typical Skeptic in June.”
is a writer, cowgirl poet, and reenacter of the Western glory days of the Wickenburg Marshals in Arizona. She teaches art and gives art therapy in her art studio or behavioral centers. She spends as much time as she can writing. You can find all her meanderings and writings atwww.americancowboyjournal.com or at www.jeantolle.com
RAINE (KEYA HUNTS-IN-WINTER), Bandana Author
Raine won the Imakinations “Totally Young Writer” Award. She is at her young age–going to be a sophomore in high school–a prolific writer of fan fiction and fantasy stories. She likes to dive into online platforms and has gotten an amazing response in cyber space.
NOEL ALVAREZ, Bandana Author
Noel is a longtime school counselor with Mesa Public Schools and over the years has served many families in the Native American Education Program, until she recently transferred into another position. She is Navajo and Muskogee Creek. She has improved many a student’s outlook in life. She makes anyone feel better with her gracious smile.
BETTY MERMELSTEIN, Bandana Author
“My latest publication: This is Fetch, an illustrated children’s book published by Pegasus Publishers. My books for children and adults can be found at Punkynotes, including published poetry and short story links.”
Tuula, now living in Henderson, NV, is a native of Finland and a world traveler. She has enjoyed encounters with Jane Seymour, James Patterson, and other celebrities. She likes to read true crime stories and mysteries along the lines of Patterson. She has written about two suspicious or criminal incidents.
UTA BEHRENS, Bandana Author
Uta Behrens has made her career as real estate investor. She has sponsored many educational and community organizations. In her golden years, she has authored 7 books: The Truth Seeker, Journeys in the Lifeboat, Journeys Into the Past, Ultimate Betrayal, Journeys into Foreign Lands, and Journeys as a Landlord. I enjoyed helping her produce the last two volumes.
TIM HUNTS-IN-WINTER
Tim is a member of the Lakota Standing Rock Reservation. He has been an advocate for Native rights and has worked as promoter and coach for Native youth in Mesa school system. He is also an excellent story teller and a treasure trove of Native American history. Lately, he has specialized in researching the Lakota code talker history of WWI and will soon publish a paper about his findings. Timothy Hunts-In-Winter
SRIANTHI PERERA
Srianthi is a professional, international journalist and book author with roots in Sri Lanka. She entered the book world with her well-received coming-of-age story, A Maiden’s Prayer. Srianthi recently published a humorous and educational travel story book that she coauthored with her childhood friend Romany, Two Friends on Many Roads.
INGE McKEEVER
Inge, with German and Latin American roots, has been a successful business woman, a Jill of Many Trades. She has the drop on fashion trends and is currently dealing in themed costumes. Special events and Halloween are keeping her real busy. As she has had much multilingual experience with the preschools she ran earlier, she is now working on a bilingual curriculum for children. It could be the next Rosetta Stone.
PATRICIA SAUNDERS
Patricia is the older sister to Inge (above). She recently documented her incredible life story in a memoir. Her journey led her from Ecuador to Colombia to finally Portland, Oregon. She overcame many challenges and professional obstacles to become a successful woman with great trust in God. Faith alone didn’t get her to the top; she worked hard for her success. A woman of her word, Patricia directly speaks her mind. Read up on her journey in From Surviving to Thriving.
MATT & MAYA KELLER
Matt (from New Mexico) and Maya (born in Lima, Peru) Keller are our long-time serendipity friends from church. Matt and Maya are expert trailblazers, and we enjoy their encyclopedic knowledge of hidden paths. Matt is a horticulturist and shares his experience with domestic and foreign fruit trees on his blog Phoenix Tropicals.
SANDE ROBERTS
Sande has been a mitigator for public organizations and a life/success counselor in schools and private practice. Her motto is “You can be the difference!” She now teaches workshops in suicide prevention, PTSD, Emotional Freedom Technique, and financial personality. Her book We Need to Talk about Suicide has received great attention. Recently, she also published a children’s book, Blake’s Great Day.
JEANNE DEVINE
Jeanne, our activist friend and founder of the grassroots organization Unlimited Potential in Phoenix, always inspires us to seek new adventures in humanitarian efforts.
as well as Dr. Inder Raj Singh Makin (host), Sarah Bohrer, Ruth Ann & Jerry Thacker, Rita Rucks, Debosree & Tamas, and everybody.
AUTHORS celebrating with us in Spirit:
ELISABETH SHERWOOD, Payson, AZ
Elisabeth is the inspiration and creator for the Bandana cover image. Her cowgirl, and now cowboy, collages are mysterious and humorous at the same time. You can see more of her art at INSTAGRAM.
CHRISTIAN BAUDY, Hamburg, Germany
Christian is a poet, painter, activist, and author. His German debut poetry collection Blättern unter Bäumen (Turning Pages below the Trees) appeared in 2021. In 2022, Christian published his first bilingual children’s book, Robert’s Teddy/Roberts Teddy. Sometimes Christian’s poems are coupled with paintings. His recent INSTAGRAM.
GISELA BAUDY, Hamburg, Germany
Gisela is a trained editor, and long-time freelance journalist, focusing on ecological and socio-economic change. Many of her poems can be found online and in her poetry volumes Worthaut (Word Skin), Blaues Ufer (Blue Shore), and Winter im April (Winter in April). She writes eco-social haikus, eleven-word poems, prose poems, and epigrams with her husband Christian Baudy. Follow her INSTAGRAM.
EMILY TOADVINE, Kentucky
Emily is this year’s first prize winner. She spent 25 years in journalism, mostly as features editor at a newspaper in Danville, KY. She now works in Kentucky’s bourbon tourism industry.
RENATE MOUSSEUX
Renate, originally from Freiburg, Germany, has been a lifetime educator in foreign languages, foremost German and French. She has documented her harrowing life story that ultimately led to great success through tenacity and ingenuity in her memoir, Renatle. After retirement, she has also become a body language interpreter and has evaluated witness behavior in famous criminal cases for TV stations. Her humanitarian activism is exemplary. She certainly has earned the Totally Humanitarian Trooper Award.
ZARCO GUERRERO, Mesa, AZ
Zarco Guerrero is an eminent figure in the Valley’s (Phoenix) cultural life. He is most well-known for his masterful masks that he carves or creates with papier maché, fabric, and other materials. He is also a community activist, philanthropist, story teller, performance artist, and historian. Zarco researched a much philosophical background behind the bandana, which is included in this collection. Find out more about him at Zarkmask.com
RUSS YOUNG, Kentucky
Russ is a photo historian who has researched a number of historic processes, such as cyanotypes and kalotypes. He gets called on many professional conventions that study the evolution of photographic chemistry. He has a keen eye for landscape photography. And he is a keeper of tradition to the point of reenacting parts of the same.
EDDA BUCHNER, Texas
Edda is a journalist and German correspondent living with her husband, Helmut, a sculptor, on a homegrown ranch near San Antonio, Texas. Edda has for many years shared her farm experience in her First Hand Living column in the New Braunfels newspaper and later collected her stories in a book called Texas Kaktuswein, Leben aus erster Hand. She continues, painting, writing stories, and gardening.
KATHERINE ZAWADA, Pennsylvania & Montana
Katherine is a first-year student at Swarthmore College by Philadelphia, PA. She earned herself a tennis scholarship and continues on the college path with top grades. If she keeps up the good writes, we will see a book from her soon.
BETH DOTSON, Kentucky
Beth won a prize in the first Bandana Book, but got too busy with her first novel. “This year, I will finally see one of my dreams fulfilled—my debut novel, Rooted in Sunrise, will be published and released into the world on September 17, 2024,” she writes in her newsletter. Aside from writing and publishing, Beth likes to get her hands dirty while gardening. bethdotsonbrown.net
VICKY LESCOE, Mesa, AZ
Vicky is a much cherished educator in the Mesa Public Schools system. She was recruited by her friend Noel to write a story about her hiking experience and knight in shining bandana. We hope she will write more for us.
HAPPY TRAILS to all of you writers! Keep up the good writes!
LIVING INSIDE HISTORY: That Barbarian, Bavarian 70ies story.
Katrina, 17, lives in 2000-year-old village. And yet her historical essays stink. Success comes when Katrina plagiarizes her late grandmother’s diary and the story gets run in the paper. Now the whole village is up in arms against her. There was some old dirt and a skeleton in the closet. This is only the beginning of Katrina’s adventures, because soon a real skeleton is found.
What a story! Katrina is looking for love in all the wrong places until she starts seeing ghosts. Now the Celtic Stallion is out in English! The Celtic Stallion now also rides the American plains.
St. George’s Chapel on the hill, minus the horse ghost, painted by my grandmother Katharina
The original “Keltenschimmel” started in my Bavarian home town. There was a sensational archaeological find in the village: in the year 2000, a Celtic princess was unearthed during the renovation project of an old farm house. Imagine—she comes to life again. And imagine all the other ghosts in between. St. George’s Chapel on the hill had at least four of them: the dragon, the hound, the witch, and the white stallion.
I sat down and wrote the Celtic Stallion then, perhaps in a pursuit of preserving the “good old days.” My book of coming-of-age amidst village myths—between a Celtic burial 2000 years ago and the Comanche who roamed the area during WWII—spilled forth on the pages. I could not have turned this off. But why this urge?
Votive paintings, such as these, are part of a church robbery in the story that Katrina gets blamed for
Was I processing my past? Perhaps. Back then, as a teenager, I could feel the exclusion and sublime bullying caused by my pursuit of higher education. Was I processing the present? Maybe even more so. Conglomerate farming and the insanity of modern times had knocked tradition to the ground. Nobody went to church, but everybody was at the Corn Field Party. Does this show my age? I (hypocrite) am not such a good church goer myself. And, finally, I could not handle the fact that another archaeological study was done towards clearance for a hypermarket building permit. All that was discovered there, is now buried under the sales floor of the grocery store. And even more farmland fell victim to the new commercial district.
This could be the hen house in which Katrina dueled with her type writer against grandpa’s peening clanks
Enough of that. My story plays in a small, 70s, Bavarian village, when the world was mostly still in order. Or so Katrina, the 17-year-old high school student thought. Oh, well, not so OK for a capricious teenager. Katrina was looking for love in all the wrong places, wrote the worst essays ever, and sparred against her mute grandfather in a duel of clattering noises: he sharpening his scythes, she hacking away at her typewriter in the hen house. Needless to say, a modern girl who lives in an old-fashioned village is bound to run into trouble. And ghosts as well. The Celtic Stallion indulges you with the Otherworld or Adventureland of modern German mythology. Be entertained by Katrina’s mishaps and the devious ghosts of St. George’s Hill: the witch, the dragon, and the white stallion. They all come to life, one way or another. History never dies.
The Celtic Stallion is now available in English on Amazon.
The German reading at the Grabenmühle near my hometown was staged with love and care. We had four presenters, who practiced their stage skills. Harp music and singing, were all part of it.
S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R ! I can’t stop watching this. It’s mesmerizing. Reflections and light play a bag of tricks on my mind. And not only did my daughter Priyanka build this piece, motor and all, she also made the GIF of 85 sandwiched pictures above. And this is how she describes it:
“Kinetic Column is my contemporary take on an iconic, historical relic. It’s completely built out of neon acrylic sheets. The transparency and bright colors contrast the white stone columns we traditionally know. The top platform is meant to resemble the turning pedestals you would see in home shopping TV shows. An amphora vase cut and etched on iridescent acrylic serves as the topper.”
For this mind-bending piece of art, she had to first bend some plexiglass with the help of her mentor Trey Duvall:
Priyanka writes: “This project is one of my efforts to create open source art. I currently work at an open source technology company (SPARKFUN)and am incredibly inspired by the sharing of information to recreate or expand upon projects. I think this makes the exclusive fields of creating art, designing tech, or writing code more accessible to a range of people that would not normally think to explore those realms.”
Here is more to watch—Laser etching:
Laser cutting:
And this the movie of all of it:
Isn’t it something? Technology, design, and craftsmanship come together. Priyanka is preparing to soon learn and build more at the NYU Tisch School of Design ITP Program. She will start her studies for the Masters degree in August. Can’t wait to see what comes next. (bragging rights of a proud mom)
November is Native American Heritage Month. The Mesa Public Schools NAEP celebrated a fabulous Heritage Night at Westwood High School. The evening was filled with Native royalty, sizzling dance performances, and a heart-felt community spirit. The evening started with an invocation by Freddie Johnson, Diné, and the Land Acknowledgment read by Vice Principal Paul Davis. Keynote speaker was Steven P. Toya Sr. from New Mexico, a much loved counselor and educator. NAEP Program Director Esther Nystrom was visibly proud of her District team that night. Senior NAEP Liaison Debra Toya from Mountain View High School had brought the Royalty and top performers to the stage.
Amazing performances by the internationally acclaimed Indigenous Enterprise group (top row) and Renae Blackwater/Maswade (above).
The fancy Rooster Dance
Multi-talented performers
The Drum Group (above) fired up the spirit of dance. Then the Traditional Akimél O’odham Singers (below; Salt River Pima) invited everybody to join hands for a social dance.
Everybody dance, and . . .
. . . they all did.
Finally, Thunder and his brother Tyler read us a story called “Thunder’s Hair.” Here Tyler and Thunder are with team leader Tiffany (middle) and their mom (right).
Debra Toya and Esther Nystrom provided gifts for Royalty and honorees.
Great job, everybody!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Arizona is home to 22 Tribal Nations that comprise approximately 28 percent of Arizona’s land base. Two important legislative bills impacted the Native American communities in 2021:
In April, Governor Ducey signed a historic tribal-state gaming compact agreement that modernized gaming in Arizona.
The Governor also signed legislation allowing Native American students in communities across Arizona to wear traditional tribal regalia at their graduation.
Dr. John W. Molina is a remarkable health professional and activist. I met him first at my own house, when he attended my friend Renate Mousseux’s launch party for her memoir, Renatle, Mosaic of Life. Renate had known Dr. Molina for many years. She had organized fundraisers for his Las Fuentes clinic in the past. Dr. Molina makes a striking appearance, looking the part of a Native American doctor wearing a long braid and traditional regalia.
A couple of years later, I got to edit and produce Dr. Molina’s own life story. Having worked with Native American youth in the Mesa School District, his memoir was a real eye opener for me as I kept editing away. Molina’s title evolved over time and became Im Jittoa Bo’o—My Healing Journey, leaning on his Yaqui heritage. And the content reads like a movie. The “Healing Journey” and life experience thrilled me on many levels. I fell right into it. This book, which came as a complete and quite clean manuscript to me, helped me see the Native American experience through Molina’s eyes.
Dr. Molina’s story is written in an engaging narrative voice. He is careful with word selection but all out honest. He grew up in the little Yaqui town of Guadalupe near Tempe as a day laborer’s son. He finished high school (an exception in his community back then), hired on with the Navy, then became a pastor for a Christian church, studied psychology, and eventually landed a community project looking after diabetic patients from his own village. Molina saw many unattended ailments and a great need for a doctor. “Why don’t you become that doctor?” his mentor challenged him. And so he did. After medical school (UofA), Molina specialized in OBGYN and founded the Las Fuentes Community Clinic. So much for the first 25 percent of his CV. He is also a jurist, healthcare advocate, and Doctor of Humane Letters, the whole list is hard to remember.
Molina is totally honest about his bumpy road to success. He faced bullying, alcoholism, prejudice, peer pressures from his own tribe, but whatever he set his mind to—he accomplished it each time at a high price and at his own risk. Tragedy struck not only once. Racial bias in the professional arena did not deter him.
Along with studying the academics, Molina also observed the ancient knowledge of medicine men. As a healthcare compliance officer for Native Health, he now makes sure that Native American patients receive good quality of care. He has reached a position that allows him to work from his cultural roots, through a holistic outlook, to serve the the whole human being. As a young physician laboring through 36-hour-shifts, he also strove for integrative approaches and, when possible, allowed the traditional healing methods to cure the body as well as the soul.
Many times Molina encountered serious doubts and discrimination. “You are a doctor?” hospital parking attendants would ask him when he walked by in street clothes. At a very young age he had realized that a white coat makes all the difference.
My favorite passage is the part where Molina hashes through the decision making process of becoming a doctor. He tells his mentor. “If I go to medical school, I will probably be 40 years old by the time I become a doctor.” His friend replies, “You will be 40 years old whether you become a doctor or not.” Simple fact. Age is an arbitrary measure, but what you do with your time has real value.
As I navigated through the book, my admiration for this man’s determination, ambition, and compassion grew with each chapter. As an anthropologist I was fascinated by the fact that Dr. Molina also turned to traditional healers and the deep knowledge from the past.
Molina narrates his story with bone-chilling honesty. He shares painful details about his affliction with addiction, family tragedies, and professional trials and tribulations—as well as his remarkable, almost miraculous successes.
All throughout his reflections, Molina does not go easy on himself. He has led a full and restless life, but he overcame, regrouped, and always put himself back on the straight road again. Now, granted, he is still a workaholic, but all to the benefit of the Native American nations and their health improvements.
Im Jittoa Bo’o—My Healing Journey, by Dr. John W. Molina. Read it. Molina’s book will enrich your outlook. Money is not all that counts. Insights are important too—and maybe a long list of credentials. Or better, what you did to help others.
You can find out more about Dr. John Ward Molina MD JD DHL on his LinkedIn page.
My friend Earley is a Jack of many trades. Yes, Jack Earley is his name. Much to say about him (Jack on right; middle, Kate Earley; left, me)
Jack has been creative all his life, one way or another. He is a painter, book dealer, philosopher, and writer. His wife Kate keeps Jack’s back free for artistic exploration. We have been friends with the Earleys since our Loveland (Cincinnati, Ohio) days. Jack’s paintings hang on our walls in Arizona. They make us feel like we are still neighbors.
Jack’s “earliest” passion was writing. “I have been writing since I was 18,” Jack said. He got interested in literature around the time when he started college. “Everybody was talking about the weird guy next door, so I went over to meet him.” That guy got Jack to read all the great novels, about 20 of them—Moby Dick, War and Peace, Brothers Karamazov, The Red and the Black, and so forth. He has been writing every since.
Only in the last 2 years Jack has produced finished products.
Like many circumspective writers, he catches a good story when it comes around. “One morning, I was doing tai chi, and I heard a news article”, Jack recalled. “There the novel just came to me and I started writing it. It was like I was a secretary transcribing what automatically appeared in my brain.”
Jack’s novel is called “Through the Ice”. A man drives his car through the ice on a lake. In shock and far away from any help, he has to walk back to town with a coyote. Imagine that!
After this revelation, many short stories started popping into Jack’s mind. He collected 103 twitter-like vignettes together in a volume called “Saturday Nights”. They are all related to Saturday family events, poker nights, and memorable pranks. Recently, Jack has started another series called “Every Day of the Week.” He has more than a dozen together but wants to come up with over 100 to match the “Saturday Nights” stories. He records the readings of his stories for YouTube, where people can subscribe for free.
Each of Jack’s short stories contains a little snap, a little epiphany. “We all go about doing things that we think are right. Suddenly, out pops a piece of knowledge, an unexpected awareness. According to James Joyce, such an epiphany normally means that God revealed himself in the streets.”
Jack camouflages these real life events by fictionalizing the characters, but all experiences are his own. In “Steak Every Night” he cast himself as the young dude getting annoyed with a loud-mouthed Polish coworker. There is a true learning moment there. If you pay attention, in each of Jack’s stories a little light bulb goes off.
All right, easy enough. But, then, ask Jack about science. Scientific discoveries may not come on accident. “In science, people are working their tails off in one direction,” Jack said, “until a little epiphany takes them into a completely different direction—because more stuff is coming at them than they are aware of.” His conclusion: Science is the art or attempt of predicting the future.
Now we are getting philosophical. Let’s take it one more step further.
According to Jack, neither painting nor story are linear, they only appear so. All of the time is right now, regardless in which order the paint was laid down or the characters enter the scene. The future is only the place where the energy is heading.
Get it? Along the way of our unsuspecting lives we are collecting more knowledge than expected. So that is called a learning experience.
Based on his definition of the common man’s epiphany, Jack is bothered by a movie called “Arrival.” In it some aliens gift humanity with a “una-language” for perfect communication and a glimpse at the future.
“However, if you can see the future, it means it is already here,” Jack said. “And if it’s already here, it means everything already happened. And if everything already happened, what’s the point? What’s there to learn? Why aren’t we just catatonic? Why do anything?”
Good question.
Quick, Jack, just write another story, paint another picture.
“We judge a person in less than the first two minutes of an encounter based on their appearance and behavior,” body language specialist Renate Mousseux says. “65 percent of our communication comes across in nonverbal expressions.” That’s significant.
Renate, my friend from nearby Fountain Hills, is unstoppable. Not only because she drives a Jaguar. She has achieved outstanding honors in foreign language (French, German) education. After her retirement from a busy high school and college teaching career, she ventured into BodyLanguage4Success.
Renate, or as she likes to be called “Renatle” in the Freiburg dialect, has commented close to 50 times on presidential speeches, criminal cases, and witness depositions at Arizona TV stations. She has read every book about body language that she could get her hands on. Now she delivers highly involving seminars to professional or social groups. Here is her take on Hillary Clinton for a Phoenix TV program:
And here is her piece on Trump:
Renate reads through the body language. She has eyes in the back of her head, her students discovered. “I could tell from far if anyone in class was cheating or not,” Renate says. “They called me Eagle Eyes.” Since she was a child, she liked to observe and imitate people. In college, she put funny mime acts on stage. Consciously or not, we all do it and read it—ever so sublimely.
“Body language doesn’t lie, especially not in the long run,” she says. She keeps the humor light and on its feet. When she models the stances, gestures, and facial expressions at a seminar, she draws the audience into some real life situations.
I have seen Renate in action many times. Her gigs are definitely charming and entertaining. She means every word she says. How is your handshake? Let’s see. She can give you good advice for an excellent first impression.
“Well, Schätzle, when you are with me, you don’t need to do this,” she tells me and gently pulls my hands from my hips. She caught me again. Hands on hips means a defensive attitude. Honestly, I didn’t mean to. Do I have to investigate my subconscious now?
Also beware of crossed legs, arms behind back, or someone stroking their chin. There is an explanation to everything, but one odd behavior alone does not make a “criminal.” I learned these features from Renate while taking notes for her book. We have been working on her life story, Renatle, A Mosaic of Life, for some time. Later this fall it will be ready for the launch.
Renate’s life story is an incredible adventure. She married into a Hollywood disaster, was down and out, and overcame some terrible blows. Yet she always stayed positive. Her turbulent story, a roller coaster of curve balls, will be available on Amazon soon.
Recently, her hometown paper, the Badische Zeitung published a write-up about her activities. CLICK on image.
“We always have to see the whole picture of a person and not judge them by a single feature,” Renate says. She has, among others, volunteered her skills for Find Me, a worldwide network of psychics working on missing person investigations.
Body language is active twenty-four hours a day. In company with people, you use body language as much as the other one. In fact, some 800 body language signals are emitted within a thirty minute conversation.
Has this social media itch bothered you too for a while? Do you have a Facebook? I thought so, I do too. Fortunately, I am not the most curious person, neither am I the impulsive type. As a matter of fact, I have never understood Facebook. (What’s there to understand, you might ask.)
Of course, I always like to hear from my friends, of whom I have at least three dozen out there. Still Facebooks seems like a coincidental, random barrage of flicks and clips and news of people, some of whom I never met, others who I might have met but forgot about, and any mysterious connections that I can’t recollect. Everything, like the injured cat’s paw, a nuclear disaster, how to fix a seam with superglue, who is dating who, who escaped to Bermuda, who added a new picture and so on. On the other hand, there is a page, my page, where only stuff gets shown that I posted. At least I know where that is coming from.
Oh boy, you can do so many things with Facebook: you can post, or repost, or like, or tag, or follow, click happily away. But when it was important, it seems I always missed it. I find out from somewhere else much later. And, what the heck, does the FB IM and mail system do? In the little doodads in the top bar with the numbers on the red circle, I discovered messages that were three years old. My own fault, I don’t do Facebook enough.
Naturally I am on LinkedIn too, for the last seven years or so. Haven’t done much on this serious contact database for doctors, marketers, and real estate developers. (I am a writer, he he.) You can enter your kudos, awards, degrees, and accomplishments there. Has it done much for me? Not that I am aware of. Nobody from LinkedIn has ever bought me a cup of coffee. I didn’t even know until yesterday, that you can blog away there. Or you can repost your very own business blog. Or you can populate your page with reams of professional advice. And feature your skills and endorsements. It seems, however, whenever I made a connection, it was always in person first. Only afterwards we linked up on Facebook or LinkedIn, snooping out each others’ accomplishments.
Certainly I have a YouTube like every “sick” (I learned that word from a teenager) person on the planet. It happened by necessity because I had to put a movie clip on a website. There you go, something useful. My kids follow their favorite YouTube artists; some are getting paid and eventually end up on TV. This is fun!
So how do I work the social media? I post my hand-knit Imakinations blog on Facebook and wonder where it goes. Facebook often puts the wrong picture with the story. Ten minutes later, my post has traveled off the FB Diagon Alley below the edge of the screen. Never to be seen again? Tag me me, like me, share me.
Yes, I do like to be reminded about events on Facebook, even randomly. After looking at the stream of posts and pictures for a while, I can’t help but feel the coercion to comment, reply, or add something. Facebook feels like a Las Vegas situation. What happens on Facebook stays on Facebook. Yes, I am afraid so. FB is the most powerful data warehouse and phishing industry on earth, stronger than the IRS or Amazon.
Yet some people, take good old superstar Golden Girl Betty White (has she died, or hasn’t she?), refuse to participate. Betty must be close to a hundred years old. And she says, she hasn’t got much time. And Facebook is a huge waste of her time.
Social media can be a lot of trouble. I remember art competitions and fundraisers, where you had to vote every day for a month or so, and like it, and tell your friends to like it. And you could vote from all five computers in your house, each one once a day, only to find out that the competitors had a thousand-people-strong organization. So many happy clickers, like brushing their teeth each morning. My poor clicker couldn’t keep up.
On my Imakinations blog I know exactly where everything is. If you like me (please), the story gets around on Facebook, you see. It makes me happy when I get a vote or two. Once I had spam tsunamis washing through my Internet mail account (Did Facebook rat me out?). OK, I installed a Spam Assassin and a Boxtrapper and downloaded a few plug-ins, as far as my HTML skills allowed. Now, try to spam me!
—ADVERTISEMENT—
I go to Facebook (or other peep shows) like I go to Goodwill. I don’t expect a system to the madness, but I come away with some real surprises. Next I check for job postings on LinkedIn and get seduced by professional cooking recipes. What? It’s 11 o’clock? Darn it, tomorrow will be a Facebook fast. I seriously need that after so much grazing.
The buck doesn’t stop at Facebook. My kids do Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumbler too. You can order RSS newsfeeds, add channels, subscribe to special interest services etc. Don’t forget the tweets and bleeps and hate mail that you can leave in the comments section of every online article. Is anyone doing e-mails any more? Are you kidding me?
There are days when I wish I could shut down the buzzing Internet. Even when my computer is not on, I feel something is whirring through the air, like bats around my head. As if cobwebs strike my face while I am daydreaming. Some evil spirits hide in the invisible net. These facts become clear when your mouse wiggles a little bit too much or your finger slips off its back. Suddenly you end (unintentionally) up in low down adult garbage. Quick, switch of the browser!
Now the final question, who has time for all that? (I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, Abba).
—Notice how the advertising creeps in?—
Are we bored out of our minds? Can’t we talk in person any more? (No, we can’t. That’s what texting is for.) So I spin a blog that is hopefully not “normal”. Because if Facebook is the new normal, I prefer the “old crazy.” I love computers and digital media, but not the social insanity. As we are busy blogging and posting, we might miss out on life. Didn’t John Lennon say, “Life happens while you are busy posting”?
Social media happen in the clouds. I like to keep my feet predominantly on the ground. And I certainly don’t need help with (day)dreaming. Because even Facebook can’t compete with my wild imagination.
There goes another bleep or tweet to feed the social insanity. Oh, how I love computers!
First, in preschool or kindergarten (oh, so late!), you open an aggressive 529 college savings account. Then you go to school for 12 to 14 more years. In your junior year you start looking for a college by hearsay and websites. Or the colleges will send you heavyweight, ultra-glossy, four-color brochures (see right). So many schools are courting your attention and your parents’ money. It’s sweet to feel so popular!
That’s how you get to college
Next you start attending college presentations every week at school or in town. In your senior summer you go on college tours, like a Department of Education inspector, to compare services and curricula. Do they have Nobel laureates? Do they offer scholarships for out-of-state students? How’s the campus lifestyle? How does this college rank in engineering? By August you have memorized the stats from the online US News and World Report. That’s how you get to college
Then you retake SATs, ACTs, and special tests until your points are maxed. In between you practice essay writing and take SAT-Math coaching. Eventually, you get on College Board or other academic launch pads to view your future. One thing is for sure, each application costs about $100. (Colleges charge before you get one class.) That is how you get to college
By September you whip a spreadsheet together to control the mind-boggling deadlines and requirements for 15 open applications nationwide. Did we include the SATs, ACTs, ECCs, APs, Parchment transcripts, high school rank, essays, portfolios, recommendations, FAFSA, IDOC, resume, service hours, and certifications? Bummer, they wanted the math scores by February 1. Forget about it now. You work each deadline until midnight—the midnight in your state. Applying to the East Coast gives you a few more hours when you live in Arizona. That’s how you get to college
Then you don’t just sit around and wait for March 1. You pick up more service hours, push a charity project to fruition, study for AP classes, and cruise the social circuit. You want to make the most of your time with your old friends before you make the new. It will be a while (uncertain) until you see them again. That’s how you get to college
Now the results are in. You made it into two-thirds of schools on your list. The ball is in your court again. Perhaps you revisit one or two of your favorites. Too expensive. Too far away. Program not exactly as desired. Ah, but there is a reasonable scholarship and the curriculum looks good too. Daddy, pay the deposit now. Pay two or three, if I can’t decide by May 1st. That’s how you get to college
Your life has changed. Fine-tune your grades, send in your final transcripts and AP results, go to graduation, have a huge party with aunties from afar. If possible, do a trip around the world as well and have a delightful piano recital to top off your accomplishments. Delve into excitement, suspense, and nervous giggles. Many last time rituals to follow. And then start shopping for your dorm. Target, if you will, is mother’s best guess. That’s how you get to college
Then drive like a (sun) devil through the uncertain night into desolate towns and find comfort in El Fidel Fettucine Alfredo that you didn’t expect in such a hitching post that time of night. The antique hotel has Hippie pictures on the wall. Who would have guessed. A nice surprise. Then keep on driving for another long stretch along sunflower-fenced territorial highways to your mountain college. Keep a steady speed to make the move-in date on time, because next day will all be purple and orange, and they kept blue just for you. They shut down the town for buffalo stampedes. Take a police escort to your room, if you will. That’s how you get to college
Well, you forgot a bunch of things at home, and some necessities come as a surprise. Chit chat, your dorm neighbors fill you in quickly, and off we go to Target again. In the meantime engineering orientation starts, the convocation gathers up its freshmen, and the welcome wagon throws out chicken wings and concerts to the newbies. Wait a minute, what about the bursar, the class schedule, and some two dozen passwords for online services and practice units? You come away from the bookstore with another hole in your pocket.
That’s how you get to college. And then you study and repeat the last couple of sentences three more times until you’re done with it and move on to the next level. What can I say, this is only the beginning. Go get them Buffs!
Because I just went to the Unlimited Potential graduation party, and I saw that the programs are effective and have changed lives. Ask Maria Angeles (below).
I don’t ever want to miss Unlimited Potential’s End-of-the-Year Celebration. Why? I have never seen any happier people than at that party. The sweet taste of learning success produces grand smiles on these graduates’ faces. More than sixty women and men, and about 20 preschool children, rejoiced in their education awards.
Brooks’ School’s multipurpose room teemed with festively dressed graduates and their families. They were not the typical students—poverty-level moms, day-laborer fathers, or low-income Latinos from many walks—but they stuck through one year of English and Life Skills instructions.
For the happy occasion, the women had chosen to color-coordinate their outfits: The first-year students dressed in teal tops and black bottoms, the second-year class in blue tops, and the evening students in all-black. The littlest of the Unlimited Potential program wore costumes in yellow, like little chicks just hatched. Performing their songs, rhymes, and dances, they stole everybody’s heart.
This celebration was a concerted effort. Participants had put their planning and cooking skills together and provided all of the catering themselves. Enchiladas, posole, rice, you name it, this party stimulated the senses with tasty aromas.
Sandra Amarillas, the first-year teacher, shared: Daytime classes had excellent attendance, but evening course students struggled after a hard day’s work. Struggles are surrounding many of these participants: making ends meet, at a loss about children’s school progress, rejection on the job quest, medical challenges, and many other obstacles. Yet Unlimited Potential’s equal opportunity education, support, and resources were an invaluable experience to them. As in previous years, participants were seriously committed and eager to learn.
What does Unlimited Potential do, what does it mean? Education is a basic human right, but too many individuals are excluded from this privilege. So UP’s program reaches out to a segment of the working-poor, predominantly Latino population in Phoenix to provide them access to knowledge and life skills.
It takes a whole village to raise a child. Yes, but it also takes parents with a keen awareness about how to guide their children to build a better future for themselves and all of us. Education makes individuals more productive and societies better.
“Thank you, thank you, for helping my mom!” a man spontaneously addressed me. He came up to me because he noticed that I was taking my volunteer photographer pictures. It felt good to be thanked, but I said, “Not me, thank these teachers here. They made it all happen.”
The man dressed in a guyabera shirt was Ivan Valdez. “My mom learned English so well and many other things. She was able to get a job. She is now working in manufacturing.” Maria Angeles felt very accomplished about her change in life.
There I sat transfixed, perplexed, in a daze, staring out the window. A writer’s life is a hidden mystery, isn’t it? My world was a well-kept secret until then.
Fiery dragons, lusty maidens, lecherous strong men, skeletons in the closet, broken taboos, absurd inceptions, unbelievable truths—all in a person’s head. Going on wild goose chases in the mind, reassembling shards of reality that won’t match. Seeing the world anew, maybe in a critical way. Secretly escaping on a fantastic island unbeknownst your fellow traveler?
Shouldn’t it remain that way?
I was about to reveal my truth in a book. My first novel was called Der Keltenschimmel (The Celtic Stallion). And I did not feel comfortable about the public reading, although aside from a fast-paced adventure story and commonly known myths my novel wasn’t really a “Book of Revelations.” The grey, cloudy sky outside did nothing to improve my mood and faith.
I had strung together some local German myths around a Celtic chapel. My main character Katrina drives forward her fate through her passionate writing of “impossible” stories. In school, Katrina, however, miserably fails in the annual “Writing Marathon.” She gets lucky with her grades and earns recognition, after she plagiarizes her deceased grandmother’s diary. Her story wins a prize in the local paper. But, oh boy, is she in trouble with the village now.
Things continue to get worse. Katrina keeps on writing about dragons, witches, mayhem, the ghost stallion, and many other semi-fictional characters. As her love interest drifts from her, as she mingles with the “foreigners,” as she confronts herself with a strict father, she is catapulted through uncontrollable events to a moment of truth. Twice the supernatural knocks on her cabin door, and once her speechless, brooding grandfather.
Was the subject matter too close to home? It seemed so, especially right now when I was facing the public presentation (or humiliation) in my hometown. But what else can one write in an authoritative voice than the familiar or well researched? My mom had read an earlier draft and seemed appalled. Many changes later, my writer friend Georg still let on to certain doubts of my craftsmanship. While he had edited the manuscript twice, I had learned a lot from him.
Georg finally convinced me to go through with the launch. He had written four murder mysteries himself (a veterinarian by trade) and gathered solid public performance experience. So he instructed me to launch the book in the lion’s den, my hometown parish hall. Right, my school friends at least would come.
That afternoon at teatime, a clumsy little blackbird in flight training crashed into my mom’s living room window. The bird was stunned and did not recover. Was it a sign of things to come?
Georg and I settled in at the gathering room. One by one the 30 seats or so got filled. Yes, my people had come. I was among friends. And Georg and I read together the cleanest passages that we could have picked for a church environment. This actually turned out into a cheerful, nostalgic party.
“I had no idea that listening to a reading could be this enjoyable,” my mother praised. I exhaled and wiped my brow. Apparently, I had passed the test.
The international group of doctors, most accompanied by their supportive spouses, retraced their college experience. They visited the various departments at GRMC campus, where college Dean Dr. R.K.S. Dhakar received the alumni in his conference room. The international group also chanced upon a dear colleague from the old days, Dr. Ranjna Tiwari, Professor of Community Health and expert sitar player.
During the course of two days, the medical professionals went down memory lane swapping stories of mischief and accomplishments. The city had changed a lot but eventually each alumnus sleuthed out their former abodes. The seven GRMC exes, who had been planning this joint outing for the last five years, bonded even more strongly over this exciting endeavor.
When I was four years old, my parents took us to the zoo. It was spring time. Somewhere around the miniature goats, there was a green activity patch: May bug hunt. Instead of Easter eggs, the activity team had laid out lifelike chocolate bugs wrapped in printed tin foils. At a shot gun start, they let a bunch of us kids inside that corral. I picked up a bug and proudly showed it off to my parents.
is a writer, cowgirl poet, and reenacter of the Western glory days of the Wickenburg Marshals in Arizona. She teaches art and gives art therapy in her art studio or behavioral centers. She spends as much time as she can writing. You can find all her meanderings and writings at 
Noel is a longtime school counselor with Mesa Public Schools and over the years has served many families in the Native American Education Program, until she recently transferred into another position. She is Navajo and Muskogee Creek. She has improved many a student’s outlook in life. She makes anyone feel better with her gracious smile.
Tim is a member of the Lakota Standing Rock Reservation. He has been an advocate for Native rights and has worked as promoter and coach for Native youth in Mesa school system. He is also an excellent story teller and a treasure trove of Native American history. Lately, he has specialized in researching the Lakota code talker history of WWI and will soon publish a paper about his findings. 
ELISABETH SHERWOOD, Payson, AZ
Zarco Guerrero is an eminent figure in the Valley’s (Phoenix) cultural life. He is most well-known for his masterful masks that he carves or creates with papier maché, fabric, and other materials. He is also a community activist, philanthropist, story teller, performance artist, and historian. Zarco researched a much philosophical background behind the bandana, which is included in this collection. Find out more about him at 
Edda is a journalist and German correspondent living with her husband, Helmut, a sculptor, on a homegrown ranch near San Antonio, Texas. Edda has for many years shared her farm experience in her First Hand Living column in the New Braunfels newspaper and later collected her stories in a book called Texas Kaktuswein, Leben aus erster Hand. She continues, painting, writing stories, and gardening.
Beth won a prize in the first Bandana Book, but got too busy with her first novel. “This year, I will finally see one of my dreams fulfilled—my debut novel, Rooted in Sunrise, will be published and released into the world on September 17, 2024,” she writes in her newsletter. Aside from writing and publishing, Beth likes to get her hands dirty while gardening. 
It had to be written—I don’t know why.
A couple of years later, I got to edit and produce Dr. Molina’s own life story. Having worked with Native American youth in the Mesa School District, his memoir was a real eye opener for me as I kept editing away. Molina’s title evolved over time and became Im Jittoa Bo’o—My Healing Journey, leaning on his Yaqui heritage. And the content reads like a movie. The “Healing Journey” and life experience thrilled me on many levels. I fell right into it. This book, which came as a complete and quite clean manuscript to me, helped me see the Native American experience through Molina’s eyes.
