20 November

Plaid Friday hits Bedlam Farm. Take Back The Holidays.

by Jon Katz
Plaid Friday

For the first time in many years, I am looking forward to Black Friday. That’s because it’s also Plaid Friday.  Plaid Friday is a movement I can easily get behind. In response to the insanely greedy over-hype that defiles the spirit of Thanksgiving and measures our national cultural heritage by mall shopping, a new idea has emerged to celebrate the creativity and diversity of small businesses. And there are two right around me – Full Moon Fiber Art and Battenkill Books.

It seems to me if one wants to get corporations to behave differently, the best way to do that isn’t to occupy them, but to take some money away from them and gives it to hard-working and creative individuals. That is a political movement I am quite ready to join, and I can’t think of a more constructive thing to do. The Plaid Friday movement – urging people on “Black  Friday” this week to shop at independent businesses has definitely caught hold here at Bedlam Farm.

And there are two good ways to do it:

Maria has decided to make 25 potholders this week and put them on sale Friday, Plaid Friday. Three of the people who order them will get them for free. Details on her website. I’ll be skulking around annoying her and taking photos of the potholders in progress Check it out. She is very excited about it, and so am I. Maria has worked hard to grow her small business and is making great stuff and I am unspeakably proud and admiring of her. Plaid Friday is made for the Studio Barn.

Holidays ought to mean more than sales figures, and Plaid Friday could help us take back the holiday season by honoring its true spirit – which is not just about lining the coffers of greedy and insensitive companies.

Another way is to continue to support independent bookstores by purchasing copies of any of my books, including “Going Home: Finding Peace When Pets Die,” “Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm,” and “Rose In A Storm.” Connie, a creative and energetic and very hard-working book lover, is offering free “Going Home” videos and Bedlam Farm notecards to anyone who purchases any of these books. This week, corporate publishing – Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Apple are raking in huge bucks selling e-readers and they will make many millions, if not billions of dollars. I see now that independent bookstores will survive – nearly 700 people have bought “Going Home” from Connie Brooks. I hope to get to 1,000 by New Year’s and Plaid Friday is the perfect day to affirm the importance of creativity, individuality and diversity in American life. This Friday I will be at Battenkill Books from 3 p.m. on – 518 677 2515 – to answer phone calls myself (as many as I can) and sign books. Call to buy a book and celebrate Plaid Friday. You can also order books via PayPal at [email protected].

 

 

20 November

Giving Thanks: A Last Thanksgiving

by Jon Katz
Giving Thanks: The Last Thanksgiving

 

I went to see my friend who is dying, again over the weekend. He was tired, pale, discouraged. He said he was thinking of going to the hospital, to end his life there. I asked him why. He said because his pain medication made him frightened and angry and affected his thinking, and he got so upset that he might need 24 hour care. He’d been feeling this for several months, since he started taking medication, he said. I asked him if anyone had considered changing the medication, and he said no, that had not come up. He said he was certain this will be his last Thanksgiving and maybe his last Christmas, if he can get there.

We talked for two hours, and it was a good talk, a wonderful talk in so many ways, a powerful talk. Another friend joined us and we had dinner together. My friend is a very spiritual man but had not had the opportunity to really consider what he wanted at the end of life, or rather considered the idea that he could control how it ended. I told him hospice – he is now under hospice care – is not about medications or procedures, and it not focused on treating his illness. It is focused on making him more comfortable, and also on letting him decide how he wants to die. Hospital care is different.

In a sense, I said, hospice is about letting go of the idea that your health needs to be monitored or controlled, letting go of doctors to some extent, or of the idea of recovering. That is a difficult thing to let go of. He asked me, after some hours, what I thought he should do, and I said I wasn’t there to tell him what to do. I said it might make sense to try switching to another medication to see if the fear and anger receded, and if he might be able to stay at home for awhile, which is what he said he wished to do.

I have realized, I told him, that few people believe they can control the end of life, and even fewer are given the chance. We are talking again Monday. The conversation seemed to energize, even revive him – especially the idea, he said, that no one had suggested he might deal with these issues in some other way than being heavily medicated with powerful drugs.  That surprised me very much, and yet it didn’t surprise me at all.

I had a good time, a very spiritual time. I told my friend that now, of all times, he had the right to say what he wanted, and to see if that was possible. Sitting in that darkened room, looking at his books, his paintings, I felt a rush of gratitude. For the gift of life, the joy of friendship, the power of love, and of course for life itself, fragile and unnpredictable. This is his illness, not mine, but I resolved yet once more time to remember that life is precious, and must not be wasted. Not a single day.

I enjoyed my Sabbath day today. The world is ready for me. Iphone issues, the video camera is broken. The perfect life is not one without troubles, but one in which troubles are overcome and expected, and handled with grace and compassion.

20 November

Day Of Rest: My Sabbath

by Jon Katz
Weekend Sabbath

 

I’ve decided to make Sunday my Sabbath, my day of rest. I think spirituality requires disconnection from the machinery of the world, from questions, from answers, from news, from  photos, videos, texts and words. I think the notion of a day of rest – practiced by Jews and Christians and, in different and very powerful ways, Muslims – is more important than ever. Judaism takes if farther than I wish to go, and to me,  the Christian and Jewish idea of a day of rest has been undermined by shopping, technology and media. Increasingly, our culture is making Sunday like any other day. But I need a day of contemplation, to gather myself, hear me think.

So I am disconnecting from technology on Sundays.(Maria does this on Saturdays).  One photo, perhaps.  Turning off computers, cell phones, Ipad and all devices, and listening to the messages from Maria, the animals, my books, my own head. I think this is essential to my spiritual life, my creativity and to being the kind of person I wish to be. So my Sabbath begins now. See you tomorrow.

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