Red is the Mansion therapy dog and Summer was a stray found, spayed (thanks Army Of Good) and given all of her shots. Summer spends her days roaming the grounds of the Mansion, her nights in various rooms with different residents – she choose a different one every night.
She is much loved there and much fussed over. Red and Summer spotted one another, Summer always took off and hid. This week, she has been checking Red out and getting closer. She is no longer hiding from Red, she has sized him up accurately. He was sitting on the Mansion porch and she came over and the two of them communed.
Red has this odd way of dealing with new animals. He sits with them, he rarely, if ever looks at them. I think in a way this calms other animals down because when dogs look at other dogs, it’s often a challenge. Red just pretends they don’t exist, yet he is also signalling them that it’s okay.
I image them comparing notes – who loves animals, who doesn’t, who needs a visit, who doesn’t, and sharing gossip about the place. It was nice to see these two sweet animals connect.
This coming week, a big week at the Mansion. Monday is the beginning of Assisted Care Week, and we have commissioned 22 pizzas from the Round House Cafe for a pizza party starting at 11:20 a.m., staff and residents all invited, we ordered pizza for 45. Wednesday morning, a memorial service for Bruce, and the residents have asked for me and Red.
Thanks for all the decorations and gifts you have sent to honor this week.
Thursday, 16 of us (I’m going) are taking a two-hour lunch and boat ride around Lake George. Thanks also for that. I got four extra tickets for another day for some of the staffers who couldn’t make it this trip because they had to work.
Writer and poet Jackie Thorne and I are conducting a two-part poetry workshop in September and October. I’ve purchased one lift reclining chair for Jane, and am raising funds for a second for Art. Connie is recovering well, today she was carefully going through a large back log of letters waiting for her when she returned from the hospital.
Thanks to all of you good people for making all these good things come true for the residents of the Mansion. You have helped to transform live there, there was always plenty of love and good care but they sure love the attention.
I forget to mention that the Mansion book of short stories, “Tales Of The Mansion,” is in its third printing, it costs $10 and you buy it through Battenkill Books. They take Paypal and major credit cards and ship anywhere.
Two Reclining Power Lift Chairs For The Mansion: Jane.
I’ve decided to buy two lift recliner chairs for two Mansion residents, and could use some help from the Army Of Good.
I’ve held off on fund-raising for a few weeks to give everyone a rest, but I think this need is somewhat urgent.
I am going to get two reclining power lift chairs. One is for Jane, who is confined to a wheelchair, and the other is for Art, who is in great pain and is isolated from friends and family, he is a man of rigid and sometimes angry faith.
Jane is in her wheelchair day and night, she cannot stand up without assistance. I just bought her a Magic Union Power Lift reclining chair so she can get help standing up to go eat or get to physical therapy. It cost $479. Jane is one of the only residents at the Mansion who cannot stand up without assistance.
That is already purchased.
Jane also has severe hearing problems, she hears almost nothing but does some lip reading. She is taking art lessons, she wants to focus on her painting, which has become important to her.
The chair will be an enormous help to her, and also to the Mansion staff, who often have to lift her to move her. It will arrive on October 5th.
I am also looking to buy a lift and reclining chair for Art, who I have been writing about. He is a man of great and often unyielding faith. He moved to the Mansion to be near his brother, who died soon after Art arrived. Art has very fixed beliefs, they are very different from mine or most other people.
A Lift Chair For Art
He often expresses them loudly and forcefully.
This has isolated him, somewhat of his own doing, as he would be the first to admit. Art and I have a strong connection, if an unlikely one. We pray together two or three times a week. He accepts that I am different from him, we just feel at ease.
I’ve gotten him an air conditioner, a CD collection of the Bible, and boombox to listen to.
I’ve asked the Army of Good to write Art- which many of you have – and he is much buoyed at having a ministry of his own. Art has some fearsome beliefs about culture and faith, and many of the residents stay away from him. His prayers with me are gentle and loving. He called me a “Man of God,” and prayed for Red and Gus and the animals.
(You can write Art at The Mansion, 11 South Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.)
It is very difficult for Art to sit in his chair, or to stand up, he suffers from severe back pain. In this work, I learn to listen, not to talk or argue or insert myself. I had a long talk with a Mansion official today, and she encouraged me to pursue these two chairs.
The chairs are simple to use, they were designed specially for the elderly, and have drawn good reviews.
It doesn’t matter what I believe, or what I think. There is something very human about working with the residents of the Mansion, it transcends the divisions and arguments that have become so prevalent in our country.
I believe in empathy and compassion, and I see that Art has cut himself off from friends and family. He is also grieving for his brother, and told me he is ready to leave the world, but God is not ready for him to do that. He has his own way of doing things, but Art, at the core, is struggling to be a good man.
I don’t know if Art ever found his own place or community, but he seems somewhat out to sea to me. I’m working to help ground him, and also to deal with people who are different than he is, and who have different beliefs. The staff is also working on this.
They agree that a lift would be helpful to him, and to Jane. I always check with the staff before I bring anything of substance into the Mansion.
My goal is to make Art more comfortable physically – the room air conditioner was just a start. I noticed this week that Art is so uncomfortable in his one chair that he sits on the bed when he in the room. I asked him how I could help, and he said a lift chair would be of help.
The lift chair would also make life somewhat simpler and easier for Jane, who suffers quite a bit. The chair I ordered also has a vibrating massage which might ease her discomfort.
Several people have suggested a used chair, but that is not appropriate for the Mansion. There are all kinds of legal and health and other considerations to consider. It needs to be new and under warranty and of a certain size to fit in the room. I’m giving these two chairs to Mansion, not the residents themselves, so that others can use them if that becomes necessary or feasible.
Art’s chair needs to be bigger than Jane’s, he weights close to 300 pounds. I think it will cost between $800 and $1,000. So I am seeking contributions and donations for his chair. If you choose to contribute, you can do so via Paypal, ([email protected]) please Mention “Reclining Lift Chairs,” or by check: Jon Katz, Post Office Box 205 Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Please mention “Reclining Lift Chairs” on any checks.
This feels like a good and important thing to do for Jane and Art. We can’t change outcomes or lives, but we can fill some of the holes in people’s lives as they move inexorably to the edge of life. And thanks. It is so much better to do good than to argue about doing good.
Since some gracious people have compared my photographs to the paintings of Money and Renoir (I would not dare to make such a comparison), I’ve decided to call this strain of my photos Photographic Impressionism, the art of creating a painting that is a cross between photograph and a painting.
The photographs are taken with my new art lens, the Daguerreotype Achromat and have been the most popular pictures I have ever taken. Some people do not care for the soft focus or blurred edges. I’m pretty excited about them.
I’ve sold out the Blue Heron limited edition, and have so far sold about 15 of the prints above, “The Farm On Route 67.” The prints will be printed on archival paper, and are 81/2 by 11 and signed. They cost $60 plus $10 shipping, a total of $70.
Maria has taken over the sales of my photos, if you are interested (this is an open edition) you can go here, or e-mail Maria at [email protected]. All of the prints will be signed.
And thanks for the many good words about these photographs, I appreciate them.
Out October Open House will be the last one until next October, we’re dropping the Spring Open House for awhile, we just have too much to do. Maria has signed up the performers in her belly dancing class to come and dance at this year’s Open House, just about a month away on Columbus Day Weekend.
The dances will be here on Saturday and Sunday. So will a slew of talented artists, Ed Gulley and his farm art, Mary Kellogg and her poetry, The RISSE Soccer Team Chorus, and a van load of Mansion residents. People can meet the donkeys, listen to talks and readings and buy affordable art just a couple of months before Christmas.
Maria is stockpiling potholders and bags from India and some of my photos to sell. I will be doing herding demos with Red and Fate (maybe Gus also). The dogs will be happy to welcome visitors (please don’t bring your own dogs, thanks.)
The art is amazing, it will be on display in her Schoolhouse Studio.
A week after our Open House, we will be off to New Mexico for a week, our first real vacation ever.
The back porch has always seen a kind of living tableau of our lives – these are pumpkins from our own patch – and the belly dancers are going to perform there, it’s simpler for them than on the grass. The RISSE refugee kids will sing, the Mansion residents will say hello, two weavers will be spinning, the sheep will get shorn by our Vermont shearers.
This is our sixth (seventh?) year of the Open Houses, it is our chance to share our work and our lives. You can follow the details on Maria’s website.
For Flo, our barn cat, the farm is her palace. She has a score of spots she co-opts from time to time, including this old bench by the apple tree. When I am out there, she always comes to visit me.
I call Flo the Ted Bundy of cats, she is always out murdering something and bringing the body back to us. Yet she is a sweet and loving creature. This is the fascinating thing about cats for me, their duality, their mix of attachment and wildness. Flo is the only cat who has successfully seduced me, charming me into letting her into the house.
Soon, the nights will get cold and she will be back inside at night. Let’s see how Gus handles that.
