Fall 2020 is like no other!

Fall has arrived, though the unusually hot weather and dry winds still pose fire dangers in California. And October 17 marks the 31st anniversary of the huge Loma Prieta Earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area. We should all be prepared with food, water, cash, and other basic supplies just in case. Life today is so unpredictable!

Five of the six biggest wildfires were still burning in northern California less than two weeks ago...those beautiful vineyards of Sonoma and Napa counties. The number of acres burned has doubled in the last two decades. Smoke has spread thousands of miles away and has been a huge health issue. The increase in smoke threatens to undermine decades of air quality improvements across the country — improvements driven largely by federal policies (specifically the Clean Air Act), which have led to substantial health benefits for millions of Americans.

BREAKING NEWS October 16

President Trump reversed himself, approving wildfire aid for California shortly after his administration rejected the state’s request for help.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said Friday morning that he would appeal the denial — and had apparent success in persuading the president during their afternoon phone call. The disaster relief aid covers six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month.

Russell M. Nelson, prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and other leaders urged us to raise the level of our acceptance and love for all of God's children and also to have a more uplifting approach to our political views and discourse. We know God is at the helm, and though He will not take away our agency, will not necessarily prevent natural and man-made disasters and illnesses, He will prevail and all will be made right in the end. It is up to each of us to be honest and careful in our choices and consider the bigger picture and how even small decisions affect all of us. Take time to engage with others and see the best in them.

Even young children (some of my grandchildren) can absorb the sweet Gospel messages.

Emmanuelle Charpentier, left, and Jennifer A. Doudna in Oviedo, Spain, in 2015.

It’s the first time the award has gone to two women, and Dr. Doudna is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize while she is still on the U.C. Berkeley faculty.It has been only eight years since Dr. Doudna and Dr. Charpentier — now the director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin — co-authored their first paper demonstrating the power of Crispr-Cas9. Since then, the technology has exploded. Doctors are testing it as a cure for genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease and hereditary blindness. Plant scientists are using it to create new crops. Some researchers are even trying to use Crispr to bring species back from extinction. Crispr “solves problems in every field of biology.”

Dr. Doudna's lab, for instance, rushed to start doing coronavirus testing back in March. I have great respect for these women and for all who are making strides in science, especially at this time when a Covid vaccine is so crucial. I also greatly respect the women who dedicate themselves to MWEG. My daughter Emily Taylor did a zoom presentation this week on "Building Connection amidst Disagreement." She gave tips and steps for listening and sharing political and other views, so important at this election time. To be clear about your own and the other person's opposing positions is to be kind.  Check out her talk and others at the website.

Credit...The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded on Wednesday to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for their 2012 work on Crispr-Cas9, a method to edit DNA. The announcement marks the first time the award has gone to two women.                   “This year’s prize is about rewriting the code of life,” Gora
Hansson, the secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academyof Sciences, said as he announced the names of the laureates Dr. Charpentier and Dr. Doudna, only the sixth and seventh women in history to win a chemistry prize, did much of the pioneering work to turn molecules made by microbes into a tool for customizing genes — whether in microbes, plants, animals or even hum

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Memories of Independence Day 6 years ago in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

I suspect they were not able to celebrate like this during the pandemic!

Susy Molina in the center was my roommate. Hermana America Zuniga on the right is from Antofagasta, Chile. I was able to spend time with her and her husband at their home in northern Chile in 2018 when I served a mission in Santiago, Chile. It is wonderful to have friends all over the world. Friendships create bridges to understanding and a more peaceful world. Responsible voting also helps us be part of the solution rather than the problem in a complex world in disarray!

And don't forget your mask and social distancing . No one wants this elusive pandemic to last forever. We each must do our part!

 Fall has arrived officially, but warm summer weather continues.  This fall in Palo Alto no school buses run, no kids ride to school on bikes, no laughter is heard from the neighboring elementary school. Students are at home behind computer screens, hopefully learning something?

I was sad to lose several friends this past week, along with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, powerful voice for justice and women's rights. One final barrier broken: She is the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. Who will replace this remarkable woman? President Trump is determined to have his choice confirmed before the November 3rd election.

I left with smokey skies in the Bay Area and headed to Pinecrest, a 3-hour drive from here, in the Sierra, where the smoke cleared early this week. Nearby Yosemite National Park is closed due to the many area fires still burning. I spent 4 wonderful days hiking, swimming, boating in the lake and relaxing with 2 siblings, spouses, and family, all from San Diego. My sister Irene and family have not missed their Pinecrest week in 29 years!

My cup, as well as my brother Brion's, felt full...so nice to be in the mountains with fun people! and 4 lively dogs! and very few others.

The lake is being emptied through the dam leaving just enough water  to freeze, so the level is lower than in the summer, and the crowds have left. So refreshing is the sound of the river rushing down the hill. The national forest & park were closed recently due to fires.

A fellow senior missionary in Ecuador shared a photo of the young women of our ward performing a traditional dance. May we build positive and uplifting memories and treasure our positive images of this strange and challenging pandemic time. I'm grateful for more time for re-connection with family and friends, albeit virtually, more time for reading and reflection on what is truly important to me: justice, mercy, commonality, the ways that differences can help us grow. I am especially grateful for small and simple things that bring me joy. I recognize that many are suffering greatly, but hope they can find a measure of peace also.

None of us will forget 2020. This barbed wire hula hoop is an interesting metaphor! Ouch! Covid pandemic, fires, hurricanes, economic crises, election divisions, racial and civil unrest, education challenges, and more....

School days are not what they were in the 1950's or even in early 2020. Whether to go to school or learn on-line is a tough question!

In Palo Alto and many places it's online education.

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Children, adults and especially teens are social creatures

In Indonesia (and elsewhere), students reported the home-learning program to be even more stressful than regular classrooms. Some of the common reasons for this went along the lines of: "Normal classes may have been difficult, but having friends makes it so much more manageable and less stressful. Online classes take out the benefits of having friends to socialize with and being stuck alone with nothing but assignments." Teachers also struggle to manage online learning.

Below, the remains of our beautiful local church Camp Lehi in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A message from our local leaders:"When you combine the fire, the quarantine, the civil unrest, and other personal losses that many of us have experienced, it can be overwhelming. In the last general conference, Apostle Elder Holland gave a talk entitled “Perfect Brightness of Hope.” This quote from his talk captures our testimony, 'I testify that the future is going to be as miracle-filled and bountifully blessed as the past has been. We have every reason to hope for blessings even greater than those we have already received because this is the work of Almighty God, this is the Church of continuing revelation, this is the gospel of Christ’s unlimited grace and benevolence.'   While these are turbulent times, we know the Lord continues to be involved in the little details of our lives. He knows what we are going through individually and as a church, and He will use the circumstances and experiences to strengthen us individually and collectively."  We love you and hope that you and your families continue to see the Lord’s hand in your lives."

If you or someone you know is struggling with discouragement or depression, especially at this time, here is a short (11 min. video)

https://youtu.be/IrNqGqy5kbQ

Smoke has polluted our skies, though pollution makes for spectacular sunsets...the sun is a giant red ball each evening before a red moon arises.  Where are the clouds with a silver lining?  Again generous donors step forward to help  evacuees and those many who have lost their homes. Added to the smoky skies, Labor Day weekend temperatures in the San Francisco Bay Area were record-breaking. In Palo Alto we had 2 days of 106-7 degrees!

My first get-away during the pandemic has been a trip to Reno. 

Notice the smoke layer, the fire progressing eastward and the blue of gorgeous Lake Tahoe...

         The El Dorado fire near Los Angeles added to the air pollution

The first day at the Truckee River, the second day in the morning on Mount Rose with the smoke coming, then Lake Tahoe cloaked in smoke (normally one can see across this crystalline blue lake). We swam anyway...so refreshing.

We loved having the chickadees eat seeds out of our hands

We swam and paddle-boarded and enjoyed the lake despite the smoky skies. And met people from all over, including Brazil. Coincidentally 

my son's grandmother-in-law, Aurea Lima, just turned 97. She is full of life, and love for family and friends. It is unbelievable that she had the coronavirus and was able to recover. She is an amazing lady who lives in Curitiba, Brasil! I was honored to stay in her home in 2006.

In California, the skies are all cloudy/smokey all day

In Utah, the skies were mostly blue....

The Carlstons...some of my Utah grandchildren with my son-in-law

Nearing the end of a momentos Summer 2020

John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80 (on July 17, 2020)

Images of his beating at Selma shocked the nation and led to swift passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was later called the conscience of the Congress.

More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against police killings of Black people and, more broadly, against systemic racism in many corners of society. He saw those protests as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness (pancreatic cancer) had left him to watch from the sidelines. He was instrumental in passing the Voting Rights act of 1965.

Former President Barack Obama, said in his eulogy at the funeral of John Lewis — ("he was the first of the Freedom Riders, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, youngest speaker at the March on Washington, leader of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Member of Congress representing the people of this state (Georgia) and this district for 33 years, mentor to young people, including me at the time, until his final day on this Earth — that he not only embraced that responsibility, but he made it his life’s work."

"(The Apostle) James wrote to the believers, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

"It is a great honor to be back in Ebenezer Baptist Church, in the pulpit of its greatest pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple — an American whose faith was tested again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance — John Robert Lewis."

(for the full eulogy see: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/us/politics/john-lewis-funeral-barack-obama.html

(That this could be said of all of us as we face trials, including the challenges, repercussions, losses of this pandemic, racial violence or personal tragedies)

Lewis was instrumental in passing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The fifteenth amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratifies Feb. 3,1870, prohibited any denial by nation or state of the right to vote (to males) on the basis of color, race, previous condition of servitude, but as we all know there was much obstruction, though illegal: literacy tests, poll taxes, intimidation.

Many feel a new voting rights act is overdue. John Lewis discusses in June, 2020

Women also fought hard for the right to vote. In 1893, women in New Zealand could vote in parliamentary elections. Finland (then part of Russia) won universal and equal suffrage in 1906. 
The women below were arrested in 1917, at a college student protest in front of the White House. Lou Henry Hoover, Stanford University class of 1898, was a leader. She and others had voted in California state elections of 1914. She wished her A.B. in geology stood for "a boy", as so many opportunities were unavailable to women.

Women  (with a million signatures) protest in NYC in 1917
After a half century of effort and agitation, American women were given the right to vote, nationally, in 1920, with 19th amendment. However, male and female Native Americans could vote only in 1924, and Asian Americans in 1952.
It seems that war influenced voting and other rights for women in several countries:
Denmark & Iceland (1915); Russia (1917); Germany and U.K. (photo below, 1918)
Japan and France (1944); India: (1947). Some other voting rights for women gained: Brazil (1932); Turkey (1934); Greece (1952); Mexico and China (1953); Egypt (1956); Honduras(1955); Switzerland (1971); Iraq (1980); and finally Saudi Arabian women in 2015.

Centennial Celebration of Women's Suffrage: One (Wo)man, One Vote

 August 18 marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment was ratified, extending the right to vote to women in the U.S. The work was decades in the making, thanks in part to the dedication and perseverance of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, and Alice Paul. 

 

It is our right, duty, and privilege to vote responsibly and to allow and encourage all our fellow citizens to do so.

We all have women in our lives we honor, most are considered just ordinary, but what life is really ordinary?

 I was pleased to celebrate my Aunt Julie's 91st birthday with 3 of her 4 children, my cousins, their spouses and one grand-daughter in cousin Doug's garden in Napa, CA. (social distancing by households!). She has made the most of those years, among her many activities raising a wonderful family!

We all miss our grandparents' big beautiful home at Stanford (now the historical home belongs to the university and has been re-landscaped) where we cousins, aunts and uncles, kids, grand kids spent so many happy occasions, especially Thanksgiving. Aunt Julie was born in Switzerland while her father was on sabbatical, but this was her home. I also lived my first few years here.

Despite the lingering, even increasing Covid pandemic, I'm grateful for walks, bike rides, and small hikes at the baylands and Palo Alto's Foothills Park. Everything is dry, as we rarely get even one drop of rain from May to November.

Manzanita and madrone are abundant red-barked trees. 

The white line the other side of the bay is salt!

The park is rich in redwoods, oaks, cedar, madrone, bay, deodora, and other trees. Baby lizards and snakes, fish and birds enjoy the trails, as do we humans.

Picnic tables, bbq's and playgrounds are off limits still.

Schools throughout the U.S. (and the world) are debating the possibility/ wisdom of at-school versus online distance learning, or some modification. Palo Alto education will be online at all levels, at least this fall. All alternatives are challenging for teachers, kids and parents (especially those working from home). Let's wear masks and social distance and get this pandemic over with!

My best discovery of the week is the cello music of Croatian Stjepan Hauser. It is absolutely heavenly music...brings tears to my eyes. So many beautiful concerts. A tribute to the human spirit during these pandemic times.https://www.instagram.com/hausercello
https://www.facebook.com/hauserofficial  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp4UrPsHO3g

How lucky we are to have the technology and many generous individuals and organizations that allow us during these challenging times to be inspired and entertained. Take advantage of the music, films, podcasts, etc. available to us!

I know this corona virus cannot last forever. If we learn the lessons of our requested/required sacrifices, discipline, and meet challenges with faith, goodwill and wisdom, we will have progressed as individuals and communities. Somehow we can recover our jobs, our education, our health. A big thank you to all who dedicate themselves to our well-being.