Before he came, I emailed my next door neighbor Bill Adams. "Please come over for one quick second. Thank you!"
He did. I asked him what a black box on the floor of my office was.
A sound woofer, he said. You keep it on the floor b/c of the vibrations. It's attached to your speakers.
Now I know!!!
The room looks wonderful, now. Frankly, my dear, I couldn't stand going into that room before. It's Dan's former bedroom.
Gary Fleet just sent me this link that shows the color and content of my new carpet.
Total cost was $550 installed.
Fred finished in about two and a half hours. While he was upstairs hammering away, I was on my living room laptop reworking my new short story "Pandemonium." I was up until 4:30 am finishing the first draft. Part of the story revolves around "A Night to Remember," a 1958 British film about the sinking of the Titanic.
Some comments about The Compass:
Hi Ruth,
Thank you for sending me those copies of Compass. What a great magazine. I am proud to be a contributor. Wonderful work there serving the community.
I look forward to seeing you in the sonnets class at HV Library.
Warmly,
Lynn
Hi, Ruth,
Thanks very much for sending me your magazine.
It is a beautiful and very important journal with profound
statements about people’s
lives.
I enjoyed seeing the piece on my play. It adds another dimension to my work.
I will be coming out to visit Bernice sometime in April, and
look forward to seeing you.
Warm regards,
Lloyd
Hi Ruth ---
The
Compasses came today! I think this is your best one yet! The cover is an
AMAZING piece of artwork and the interviews, poems and stories are
riveting!
Thanks and great job!
Judy K
Ruth,
Thanks for all the copies that I’ve made available to the usual suspects. Issue looks great and many here complimented it.
Hope all’s well with you and your daughter’s ex-kidney.
Best for a beautiful spring!
Tony Salvatore
Montgomery County Emergency Service
Norristown, PA
610-279-6100
www.mces.org
Dear Ruth,
My colleague and office-mate Tony Salvatore lent me
a copy of the Spring, 2015 “The COMPASS.” It was my first time
experiencing the publication, and it is truly lovely, a wonderful source
of information, creative engagement and inspiration.
I wanted to thank you personally for your mention of MCES’s December
production of “Our Town.” I know you saw the OC87 Recovery Diaries
mini-documentary on the production, I don’t know if you were at the
actual play or not, but I’m grateful that you found
the meaning behind our production of the play worthy of comment, and
that it stuck with you.
It has certainly stuck with not just the 23 of
us staff members who lived and breathed the play for four months, but
with the dozens and dozens of other staff members
who cheered us on from the audience. We so desperately need to hold
onto each other and look at one another, and make time for the present
as it all too quickly becomes the past. This play was such a moving and
important experience for us as a staff and
I believe that it has positively impacted the way we are with the
people we serve, and the way we are with each other.
Sincerely,
Gabriel
***
Dear Ruth,
Thank you for the copies of The Compass. What a marvelous publication - I've never seen anything like it. Thoroughly enjoyed many of the articles and like the idea that treatment options, innovations in treatment, and gaps in treatment programs are all addressed. Very thorough -- professional while at the same time being available to people with beginning
knowledge and experience. AND, highlighting the Tim Murphy bill in Pennsylvania.
My own take on the issue of confidentiality has been that all too many professionals have used patient confidentiality as a stone wall to helping family members learn about symptoms, treatment approaches, medications, information for family to employ to help a family member or friend most effectively.
The more knowledgeable family and the public are about mental illness, the better for everyone. Family members and friends do not need to know the specifics of a person's treatment or confidences shared with a therapist, but they do need direction and education about how to support the family member - who often live with the family. After all, they, not the therapist or treatment team are with the family member 24/7. And, they too need support.
There is a great deal in the papers and news these days about police and police over-reaction to people with mental illness. "The man was wielding a screw driver - he was running toward the police officer (but was still 30 feet away), he was acting 'crazy' in the middle of the street, she was in the door of her kitchen brandishing a knife and threatening anyone not to come near her..................." but then the newspaper article goes on to say that the police officer shot the person. CMHCs were supposed to provide police training in working with a person with a M.I. Don't know if they still do in EVERY jurisdiction.
***
My dear friend Carolyn Constable, who does the "Pursue the Wonderful" column for us every year, sent me a hand-written letter. What's that?
Ruth, Compass arrived and is quite lovely. Back page with children in snow is great. [Hear that, Ed Quinn?]
Like the way the Danali Summit turned out. Thanks for printing the Alaska stuff.
On the phone she mentioned she loved the poem "Awakened" by Matthew Forstater.
Carolyn always sends me a donation for The Compass.
Gabriel Nathan
Development Specialist
***
Dear Ruth,
Thank you for the copies of The Compass. What a marvelous publication - I've never seen anything like it. Thoroughly enjoyed many of the articles and like the idea that treatment options, innovations in treatment, and gaps in treatment programs are all addressed. Very thorough -- professional while at the same time being available to people with beginning
knowledge and experience. AND, highlighting the Tim Murphy bill in Pennsylvania.
My own take on the issue of confidentiality has been that all too many professionals have used patient confidentiality as a stone wall to helping family members learn about symptoms, treatment approaches, medications, information for family to employ to help a family member or friend most effectively.
The more knowledgeable family and the public are about mental illness, the better for everyone. Family members and friends do not need to know the specifics of a person's treatment or confidences shared with a therapist, but they do need direction and education about how to support the family member - who often live with the family. After all, they, not the therapist or treatment team are with the family member 24/7. And, they too need support.
There is a great deal in the papers and news these days about police and police over-reaction to people with mental illness. "The man was wielding a screw driver - he was running toward the police officer (but was still 30 feet away), he was acting 'crazy' in the middle of the street, she was in the door of her kitchen brandishing a knife and threatening anyone not to come near her..................." but then the newspaper article goes on to say that the police officer shot the person. CMHCs were supposed to provide police training in working with a person with a M.I. Don't know if they still do in EVERY jurisdiction.
***
My dear friend Carolyn Constable, who does the "Pursue the Wonderful" column for us every year, sent me a hand-written letter. What's that?
Ruth, Compass arrived and is quite lovely. Back page with children in snow is great. [Hear that, Ed Quinn?]
Like the way the Danali Summit turned out. Thanks for printing the Alaska stuff.
On the phone she mentioned she loved the poem "Awakened" by Matthew Forstater.
Carolyn always sends me a donation for The Compass.
And if it weren't for Ada Moss Fleisher it never would have gotten done. Gotten done? Gotterdamerung?
So, when I went to New Orleans, I wrote two short stories about the trip. One has been rejected numerous times, the other only several times until The Belle Reve Journal - who dat? - accepted it.
Read it here.
I dared send the below poem to Lynn Levin, making numerous changes before I did so. She wrote back "Brava."
DANIELLE’S DOG TAGS
A good
postal team at the
19040
post office in
Hatboro, Pennsylvania, so-named
for the
hats they made
in the
American revolution
thousands
with their
bloody
deaths where we
free men
and women
tread
over the grounds
where
their blood flowed
like
spilt wine
they
freed us
from the
tyranny of
the
British, yet we
still
drink their sprightly teas
from fine
Royal Albert
China, pinkies lifted
How
quickly we forgive
Danielle
of the page boy
shining
black hair I have
never
seen at the post office
her short
sleeved blue blouse
reveals a
pair of jangling
dog tags
upon her breast
A loved
one, I am certain,
has died
in one of our wars
most
likely in the Afghan or Iraq
where we
send our black men
to perish
instead of cherishing
these
descendents of our
peculiar
institution and
helping
them become
architects
or wealthy
entrepreneurs,
it’s
only
right
Danielle
tells me
with a
shy smile
her
gleaming
teeth
white as a
pearl
necklace
that he
is a victim
of
another one of
America’s peculiar atrocities.
Her black
brother was
shot
shot dead
by a
sniper’s fire
not
overseas
but here
in Philadelphia
in what
we call a
drive-by
shooting
black
turning on black,
cannibalization
“The
worst day in my
mother’s
life,” she smiles
her eyes
brimming
like a
river overflowing
Thirty-five.
His whole life
before
him. Danielle's dog tags
clink
together
a Hail
Mary full of
grace, or
chimes on
the old
clock
tower tolling
twelve
times
lest we
forget
lest we
forget.
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