Caring in Community

11/12/2025

Avoiding screens of all kinds (science says) increases our humanity...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jonathan-haidt.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawOB0adleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR76lC3Dl6xA4CJyq8DrOvD4SIIjtKiIpIokrWSUjoulxj4AwuDYWwmfGxbKSw_aem_b0RGZOxgRw2e2tvMbR_9Mg&brid=I0QY0AH-_HxBeBRViRcT1Q

The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt discusses the “parents’ revolution” on smartphones that his book “The Anxious Generation” has started.

06/06/2024

A absolutely incredibly wonderful day manning our clinic meeting with new patients, mothers and fathers, who all share our experiences with the most incredible, insightful, rigorously thorough and no-nonsense Guardian ad Litem we are blessed to have in all of Western Massachusetts.

All of our hats off to you, Jennifer Zajac. Our children owe everything to you :)

https://www.jeniferzajac.com/

02/26/2024

"Faust, a doctor, serves as a symbol for all of mankind’s over-attachment to ephemeral life and negligence towards their spiritual life. The parallels between magic, metaphysical manipulation of the environment and the purpose of medicine are manifold. By prescribing pills and complicated technological treatments to physical and mental maladies, medicine could be seen to infringe upon the natural order of things and hence the way of God." ...

poetry, fiction, hypertext, newmedia, experimental, writing, Euphemism, a student produced literary magazine from the Illinois State University Department of English

01/20/2024

Town's recipe for outdoor ice skating...

Lawn any size up to 50 feet on a side

Concrete block in middle of lawn rink

Heating tape on outdoor faucet left on slow drip all winter

100 feet of Flexzilla branded yellow hose, lightweight and stays flexible in cold (see below)

Any brand of oscillating cylindrical rectangular sprinkler (see below)

Wait for a deep freeze of temperatures below 20 degrees for at least 1 day or 3 nights

< a tarp here saves a rink from water loss/hard melts but it kills grass, i.e. can only be used if all grass has gone brown/dormant >

When temperature is 25 degrees or less apply sprinkler flat or leaned against concrete block for 12 hours daily x 4 days

Bring all hoses and sprinklers inside drained and thawed every night

No matter how tempting, Do NOT run sprinkler all night - it WILL stop rotating and cause serious melt through and ice damage by morning

After this you will have a very thick ice base with both good flat spots and bumps to be ironed out slowly each day

For a smooth surface spot spray with hand nozzle some days throughout the rest of the winter

For the smoothest surface use a handheld hot water zamboni weekly

Keep shoveled from snow until after Valentine's Day

With care and occasional rains the rink will get smoother every week until the spring thaw ends it

Rink should begin melting and become unusable by the first week of March

01/20/2024

This is pretty dense for folks outside of my medical field; for those interested in health care reform and what we are doing right here in Shelburne Falls, please read the challenging conclusions...

I'm in an email group that is all in agreement that the U.S. healthcare system is exorbitantly expensive and needs reform. We come from wildly different b...

04/10/2023

WI- Cameron Police Officer Hunter Scheel and Chetek Police Officer Emily Breidenbach were shot and killed on 4/8/2023 during a traffic stop. The suspect is dead.
Officer Scheel was well-respected officer known for a caring and responsible manner; he was an Army National Guard veteran who had served in Afghanistan. Officer Breidenbach was widely known for her commitment to community, and frequent interaction with children and the department's service K-9 Grizz. She was the daughter of a police chief, and a candidate for trustee this next election cycle. She had recently been engaged to be married.
They were a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister; they were friends. They were real, with real people who loved them.

04/10/2023

For those of our community who are seekers seeking more...

While many find spiritual sustenance in their religion of choice, in this conversation we will explore the differences between participating in various forms of organized religion and simply living a dynamic, spirit-centered life.

04/07/2023

Tearing down more local idols -

"Those who believe there is no way to stop climate change through growth are fond of quoting Albert Einstein to the effect that “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” This has two difficulties. One is that there is no evidence that Einstein actually said it. The second is that to change the way the world thinks, person by person, is a yet more ambitious task than changing the ways in which the world generates and distributes its electric power.

If the energy transition [to green energy] cannot be achieved with the habits of mind already available, it is hard to see that it can be achieved at all. For some of those who see themselves as green, that may be a counsel of despair. To those who want humans to flourish on a planet they can care for, the idea of an environmentalism that builds must be a call to action."

Economic growth should help, not hinder, the fight against climate change

03/30/2023

hen one reaches 80, one is considered to be ripe and ready for picking. Picking usually consists of the pickers asking the pickee to reflect back on the wisdom he has gained over his lifetime. This request is based on the false assumption that wisdom increases with age. The pickee is then expected t...

12/29/2022

Come on inside to warm up and run our Lionel train, free bathroom included 😎

Jill Connolly and Al Chapman of Shelburne Falls, seated, watch their son and grandchildren skate at a rink on Bridge Street in Shelburne Falls. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

12/29/2022

Everyone's welcome, bathroom inside, warm up while running the Lionel train in Trailside's waiting room too...

Jill Connolly and Al Chapman of Shelburne Falls, seated, watch their son and grandchildren skate at a rink on Bridge Street in Shelburne Falls. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ