Sylvia's Journal

The Dollar-Rent-A-Car man at the Baltimore airport gave me a huge family van (seating 8 or 9 people plus a few dogs and cats)  instead of the economy car I had asked for. I could tell that he was disappointed when he did not see my face light up. He probably thought he was delighting me, making me forever indebted to Dollar-Rent-A-Car. But I simply wanted four wheels to get me to my hotel and the smallest possible carbon footprint. After all, I had already used up a lot of energy to fly down to Baltimore. I then made things worse by buying a big bag of potato chips (red hot flavored) which was probably trucked in from thousands of miles away, as was the Greek salad, pre-packaged, shipped from California with olives from Greece. It is hard to be a green citizen in this country where big is beautiful and fresh is a packaged illusion.

On the way to my hotel I listened to Bush’s State of the Union address (his last, thank god) which was also about illusions. I listen to the speech because, as a newly minted American citizen I feel it is one of my many civic duties. But the speech and its rituals annoy me, especially the constant clapping each time he says something that is not embarrassing; it is just as bad as the laughing tracks on sitcoms or the high-pitched cheers after every utterance from a presidential candidate after he or she has won something.

I am in Maryland for two days to work with ADRA colleagues on including pieces of our leadership action learning curriculum in the programs they offer through their annual leadership institute in various parts of the world. This has been in the making for years and it looks like it may actually happen in 2008. The last time I worked on this project with the same colleagues was on Friday July 13, a memorable day because it was followed by another memorable day. That was when the planet Mercury was retrograde (it looks like it is going backwards in relation to the earth).

Tessa wrote a special cautionary email to Axel about this planetary arrangement that is once again messing up people’s lives. She wrote it to Axel rather than me (she did copy me) because, apparently, Axel’s ruling planet is the sun which makes him particularly susceptible to Mercury’s antics. Although he usually considers all this planetary stuff nonsense, he did print and paste Tessa’s warning above his desk. She told him to:

·        Take the time to be introspective.

·        Pay attention to how he gathers information and communicates.

·        Be open to new awareness and effectiveness at work, home and play.

·        Look at the details in his life more carefully.

Since he is doing that anyways, it is not much of a stretch. Between now and the 18^th of February our familiar channels of communications apparently become tangled and confused producing delays and changes in plans. We are thus advised to use this period for researching and problem-solving, rewriting and editing, reworking old projects or successfully repeating a task. It is a time for reevaluating and reconsidering while holding off on final decisions and approvals until Mercury goes direct.  So this is not a good time for impulse buys and especially risky when it comes to electronic equipment or cars (and I presume planes). There is also an economic reason for this as major purchases may be reduced in price after the retrograde period (Valentines Day sales?) . I was glad that neither of us have any major surgery scheduled since major repairs or surgery performed now may be incomplete or plagued by unexpected repercussions. We’ll hold off on fixing the septic system for now or breast surgery for that matter (the doctor has advised to wait and see for a few months).

We are warned to double-check and reconfirm every detail because typed or written errors are easily overlooked, paperwork is mislaid, and appointments forgotten. This may be so but don’t get too serious over all this. Humor is probably the best medicine, especially when all else fails or nothing goes according to plan.