Everett Jenkins Birthday Blog

For the months of August and September 2023, I have chosen to read  Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife  by Leslie Kean.  I have chosen this book because I find that at this stage of life, I seem to be attending all too many memorial services and because I find that the concept of death is not what it once was.  I commend to you the Netflix series which is based on Ms. Kean's book. For me the series segment and the book chapters on the children who had specific and vivid memories of their past lives as adults decades before was chilling and amazing.  However, for the more scientifically inclined, I commend to you Chapter 9 of the book which is entitled "The NDE and Nonlocal Consciousness" and which was written by Pim van Lommel, MD.  As the text explains: "Pim van Lommel is a Dutch cardiologist who worked at a teaching hospital in Arnhem in the Netherlands for many years and published several professional papers on cardiolog...

For a number of years now, I have been aware of the scientific investigations associated with the Barry White effect on sexual interactions What’s the Appeal of Deep Voices In Men? | Discover Magazine Now comes an even more curious association with a male Soul Music icon with the reproduction tendencies of an unusual but crucial biological species Restorative Coral Farmers Play Marvin Gaye Underwater, Help Reefs ‘Get It On' (derek4811.wixsite.com) Who knew that "Sexual Healing" just might one day heal the world? Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California August 22, 2023

  88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 Alphabetical Index 2022 9/11 Remembrance Day  A00067 A Day with Bernadette, A Few Moments with Moses the Ethiopian A00063 A Day with Bernadette ... and the Lady  A00144 A Full Card Table of Black Economists  A00163 A Happy Fourth of July Dancing Under the Stars  A00167 A Most Profound Thich Nhat Hanh Memorial  A00113 A Musical Meditation on Rumi A00180 A Poker Game in Heaven  A00155 A Return to Allensworth: From a Field of Weeds to a Field of Dreams  A00149 A Return to Monserrat and a "Miraculous" Introduction to the Black Madonna  A00145 A Side Trip to Dublin and an Exploration of Black Irish Roots  A00146 A Surprising Connection to Our American Soul  A00148 A Tale of Two Black Economists  A00161 Abdul Qadeer Khan, Father of Pakistan's Nuclear Program  A00003 Ahmad Jamal, R. I. P.  A00147 All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and All Tha...

On Thursday, August 17, I finished reading a book entitled  Rumi Illustrated: 13th Century Persian Poems & Stories.  While I enjoyed reading the Anglicized versions of the poems and stories of the great Sufi master, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, I sensed that something was being lost in the translation. especially in comparison to the spiritually transcendent version of Rumi's poetry as set forth in this mystical musical offering (137) Shujaat Khan, Katayoun Goudarzi, Shaho Andalibi, Shariq Mustafa - One (from the album 'This Pale') - YouTube May you all have a blessed weekend and may you all meditate on this music in Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California August 19, 2023

For some time now, I have maintained a rather lengthy list of the immortals of Islamic history.  Recently, I added an entry for Shuhada' Sadaqat, the Muslim woman who is known to the world as Sinead O'Connor Sinead O’Connor, Evocative and Outspoken Singer, Is Dead at 56 - The New York Times (nytimes.com) It has been a while since I provided some musical offerings, let me do so tonight with three offerings from Shuhada' Sadaqat as a belated welcome to the realm of the ancestors (137) Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U (Official Music Video) [HD] - YouTube (137) Danny Boy - Sinéad O'Connor, 1993 - YouTube (137) Sinéad O'Connor - Silent Night (Official Audio) - YouTube Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California August 19, 2023

I was born in Oklahoma City and consider Victorville, California, to be my childhood hometown.  In addition to being points on my personal timeline, both Oklahoma City and Victorville happen to be posts on what is today known as Historic Route 66. U.S. Route 66 - Wikipedia List of Route 66 museums - Wikipedia While Route 66 was immortalized in a famous Nat King Cole song (130) Nat King Cole - (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 [1956] - YouTube (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 - Wikipedia Alas, Route 66 is not the complete highway it once was.  Instead, it has been replaced mostly by Interstate 40.   Interstate 40 - Wikipedia Last week, I took a journey of imagination by driving Interstate 40 from Oklahoma City to Barstow, California.  The journey brought back memories of having traveled the original Route 66 when I left Ardmore, Oklahoma, for Victorville, California in 1957. Back in 1957, the journey was one filled with the prospect of golden opportunities while traveling...

For August 2023, PBS has a number of programs that I plan on watching.  On Tuesday, August 8, Frontline will air an episode entitled "Inside the Iranian Uprising".  Given my interests in Islamic countries and societies, I will definitely watch and record this program.  A separate PBS station which covers world events will be airing a series entitled "Rivers of Life" with episodes on The Nile, The Amazon, and The Mississippi. I sense that these great rivers may be endangered so I will watch these episodes with some dread as to what the future holds.  The program which I am most looking forward to viewing is an Independent Lens showing of the 2016 documentary  Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary - Wikipedia Out of all my PBS viewing in August, I suspect that it will be the Coltrane documentary that brings me the most joy. Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California August 5, 2023 P. S.  Chasing Tr...

It may be one of those "coincidences" that simply just occur. However, yesterday, the New York Times highlighted the obituary for Seiichi Morimura and reading it changed my perspective of the horror that was unleashed by those depicted in the movie "Oppenheimer" Seiichi Morimura, 90, Who Exposed Japanese Wartime Atrocities, Dies - The New York Times (nytimes.com) The significance of Seiichi Morimura is that he exposed the Japanese biological warfare unit that was working on biological weapons for use against the United States and American armed forces in the weeks before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  As revealed by Mr. Morimura, if the Americans had not dropped the bomb, the Japanese biological weapons would likely have been deployed resulting in the gruesome deaths of thousands of Americans, potentially even American civilians.   Reading about the Japanese biological warfare unit is chilling and may cause one to reassess the ethical aspects involved in...

I am a regular viewer of NHK News, the Japanese news program.  Every August, NHK News typically has some in-depth reporting about the aging and diminishing survivors of the atomic bomb blasts that occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The memories of those devastations still haunt the Japanese people and influence the Japanese aversion to any type of militarization. In light of the impact that the creation of nuclear weapons has had on global history, it is perhaps only fitting that the film Oppenheimer be seen in this month of August 2023.   Oppenheimer (film) - Wikipedia It is also important that a deeper understanding on the motivations of those who created the first atomic weapons are recalled and analyzed J. Robert Oppenheimer - Wikipedia As we recently read in  Autobiography of a Yogi "The more weapons of violence, the more misery to mankind," Lao-tzu taught.  "The triumph of violence ends in a festival of mourning."  (Page 496) As seen annually o...

After 558 pages, I finally finished  Autobiography of a Yogi  by Paramahansa Yogananda. I have not read many of the great spiritual books of the 20th century.  However, I must admit that I have a grudging admiration for this book.  I do not know quite what to make of the tales of Hindu saints who do not need to eat food to live, nor of yogis who could be in two places at one time, nor of the resurrection of Yogananda's guru from the dead.  However, I do know what to make of his Yogananda's comments about his encounters with such notables as Luther Burbank and Gandhi and of his most valiant attempt to create a bridge Eastern and Western philosophies and religions.  In essence, there is great substance to what Yogananda writes and, apparently, there is great substance in who he is.  How else does one account for the success he achieved in this country and the following he has around the world.  When I return to Encinitas, hopefully in January, I hop...

  My "This Day in Science" calendar for Wednesday, July 12, reports: "2016: Scientists recreate  The Starry Night  with genetic material "Scientists from the California Institute of Technology demonstrated the ability to precisely fold and arrange genetic material in a very artistic way -- by replicating a dime-width version of Vincent van Gogh's painting  The Starry Night .  Scientists stuck over 65,000 photonic crystal "lamps" filled with fluorescent molecules to the DNA scaffold.  Though entertaining, the artistic process also represented a serious step forward in precision manipulation of genetic material, which researchers say is essential for microscale manipulation of genetic constructs for drug delivery improvements and other uses." Here is a link to the article announcing the accomplishment: Scientists recreate Van Gogh's Starry Night with fluorescent DNA | Science | AAAS Reading this Day in Science post brought to mind the most start...