GREAT HIKE..

I hiked the Colebra(?) trail today with Sally Zigmund. Beautiful day. A bit muddy from last night’s rain, but overall a short, sweet hike.

I was surprised at one point to hear howler monkeys. I’ve never heard them before in Panama.

Life of the Ngöbe, laundry day at the river:

After our hike, Sally dropped me off at the dentist’s office. I lost a crown. I thought I might just have it cemented back on as I did another time while here about six years ago when it fell off. The dentist said she could do that but told me that the remaining tooth doesn’t have enough integrity to hang onto the cement for long. So, I’m going to get a new crown. I’m relatively happy that it happened here. It’s much less expensive to replace than at home. Not sure what the price is now in the US, but here it will be $500. Always somethin’.

The auction is officially over. It was supposed to have ended on Friday at 9 pm, and it did, but when I set that end time in the software, it took MY time zone, which EST! Didn’t go over well with those feverishly bidding at 8 pm CST, thinking they had another hour and having the auction shut down mid bet. It didn’t go over very well. I was shocked when I saw my winning bid notifications coming via email. I had to get into the program and figure out how to reverse that and re-open the auction, which I did. I then sent a group email and said that I had extended it through 9 pm on Sunday. That seemed to appease most people. It also allowed another $1000 to accrue in bids. I’ve been called devious. Who knows? In any event, I’m happy it’s over. Now I just need to do the wrap-up.

I’m feeling just a bit of pressure with my writing. I have two more days to submit my next 20 pages. I’ve promised myself to devote what remains of my days on Tues and Wednesday to finish. It’s a rewrite, so it shouldn’t be too hard, but I definitely am not drawn to this like I am to calligraphy or making cards. I’m looking forward to the arrival of some paper I ordered. I need 100-lb paper, and it’s not available in Boquete. So, I bit the bullet and ordered it from Amazon. It’s going to be expensive to have it delivered here because of the weight, but I REALLY need it.

We had a Zoom call yesterday night to celebrate Mickey’s 93rd birthday. The family was together at Ann’s for dinner. Denise, Randy and I joined via Zoom. Dan bought a cake from Ann Luty, our favorite baker. I’m waiting for the photos showing Mickey enjoying it. I know she will. It looked very chocolatey.

I just finished listening to the book Battle for Your Brain by Nita Farahany. She talks about how brain technology is being used to improve our lives, but she also sounds a cautionary note about our rights to privacy in regard to thought. I especially liked the chapter on what is being called Life 2.0, how we are merging with technology. Nothing new. Ray Kurzweil has been talking about it for years, but I like her citing of specific examples where it is actually being used. She gave an example of how it is being used to treat intractable depression. Electrodes are used to stimulate the part of a person’s brain that shows up as irregular on an fMRI. She tells the story of a 31-year-old woman who had the treatment done, and she said she cried out in joy when the area was initially stimulated. A year later she is still completely fine and happy – joyful.

I have to be careful. I’ve been accused of being “an amateur who believes in pop science.” But I can’t help but be excited by the possibilities of how technology can improve our lives. It has already served me in so many ways, and I don’t like to default to fear and skepticism. I agree we must be vigilant and not allow ourselves to become slaves to the technology, which is obviously happening to many, many people. But I believe that we can become more aware of our CHOICE in how we use our devices. As we move forward, we need to align the technology with our values. I trust that people like Farahany are sensitive to the ethics and will steer us in the right direction.