Boruca in the Rain Forest

Jaguar and hummingbird rain forest carvings, Boruca, Costa Rica, August 2021

In August 2021, John Plocher, Paul D. Goodman and I enjoyed a lovely vacation at Cielo Lodge in Golfito, Costa Rica during which we were delighted to visit the indigenous artisans of Boruca in their mountain village. We brought home two carvings to celebrate the 10th wedding anniversary of our daughter and son-in-law, Jessica Dickinson Goodman and Matthew Holmes. In a prior blog, I wrote about the Boruca carvings in balsa wood of nature, particularly jaguars (symbolizing male power and protection of the tribe) and butterflies (symbolizing female power and beauty). The symbolism of a butterfly and a jaguar to celebrate a wedding anniversary seemed right.

This is to consider another aspect of these carvings, the faces in the rainforest. In both the butterfly carving by Gabriel Leira (above) and the one by Markos Boruca (below), you can see a brown face with yellow, green, blue, white, and other colored lines highlighting the features. Our indigenous guide told us that these faces represent the Boruca people who are also part of the forest.

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  Janguar and hummingbird rain forest carvings – reverse, Boruca, Costa Rica, August 2021

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  Hummingbird and butterfly rain forest carving by Markos Boruca, Boruca, Costa Rica, August 2021

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Traveling During a Plague

For our 20th wedding anniversary, John and I had planned to go on a fancy international trip; however, the Covid-19 lockdown prevented that. So, we spent last weekend on driving tour of the local Santa Cruz area instead. Traveling during a pandemic requires more planning, expense, and a willingness to be flexible and change your mind if circumstances do not feel safe. We stayed at Chaminade, a resort with a well-designed social distancing plan, including disinfecting and sealing rooms between guests. It is a pretty location with a great view but expensive (over $60 for breakfast for two, take out style in plastic containers on the deck). There were so many unmasked kids and parents running around we did not feel comfortable using the pool, and there was so much poison oak we did not feel comfortable using the trails. So, we went driving to find more secluded locations.

Some places we tried were clearly too crowded for comfort, so after admiring the beaches, and Roaring Camp steam engine from the car, we went for a walk along the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific rail line, in Felton. An almost-never-used rail line is a great place to walk, away from both people and poison oak.

Capitola
Felton
Felton
Felton
Poison Oak
More Poison Oak

Some of our memorable meals included dinner in the redwoods at Casa Nostra in Ben Lomond, and a delicious lunch at the The Crepe Place in Santa Cruz in an outdoor room with glass bottle walls. We had fun drinking Barbera wine in the glasses made for our wedding twenty years ago. We particularly enjoyed lunch at Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, the only place where we ate indoors. We arrived early in the afternoon and were seated in a very large room which was empty when we arrived and had only two other tables filled by the time we finished.

The Crepe Place
Casa Nostra
Casa Nostra
Cheers!
Shadowbrook

Shadowbrook

Our best walk was at the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park where the trails are set up for social distancing.

We still plan to take our big international trip once the world settles down a bit, but that may not be for quite a while.

 

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Images Copyright 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

20th Wedding Anniversary on 4 July

John and I are looking forward to our 20th wedding anniversary this weekend. Thinking back on some of our adventures and looking forward to many more. It is fun to be married to your best friend!

2020 virtual family dinner
2020 Mother’s Day
2018 family vacation
2018 Paul SJSU graduation
2018 St Andrew’s
2017 Reno
2016 Ashland
2016 Ashland
2016 Dunsmuir
2016 Klamath River
2015 Amtrak trip
2015 St Andrew’s
2014 Lalibela Ethiopia
2012 St Andrew’s
2012 Natural Bridges
2012 Jessica CMU graduation
2011 Jessica + Matthew
2011 Jessica + Matthew
2010 Lair of the Golden Bear camp
Lair of the Golden Bear camp 2010
2010 Teatro Zinzanni
2010 Teatro Zinzanni
2010 Teatro Zinzanni
2010 Egypt
2010 Cairo, Egypt
2008 Flying to Baja Mexico
2008 Baja
2007 India
2007 India
2007 WP668 Caboose move
2007 WP668 move
2006 Dead Sea, Israel
2006 Dead Sea, Israel
2006 St. Peterburg, Russia
2006 Russia
2005 Beijing, China
2005 China
2000
2000 wedding
2000 wedding

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Images Copyright 2000-2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Summary: General Convention GC79

Written after the final legislative day of the 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church “GC79” (in Austin, Texas).  I was with the Deputation of the Diocese of El Camino Real (Central California).  In my first GC79 blog, I gave a list of the big topics for discussion at this General Convention.  Here is that same list, linked to an Episcopal News Service article about what happened:

1. Marriage Equality: approved a historic resolution giving all Episcopalians the ability to be married by their priests in their home churches
2. Revising the Book of Common Prayer: adopted a resolution that allows all congregations in the Episcopal Church to use optional, expansive-language versions of three Rite II Eucharistic prayers in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer
3. The Episcopal Church and the #MeToo movement: voices and stories of women played a significant role, from a liturgy where bishops offered laments and confession for the church’s role in sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, to passing a resolution so that deputies can to bring babies on the floor of the House of Deputies to feed them
4. A salary for the president of the House of Deputies: agreed to a plan to pay the president of the House of Deputies for the work of the office
5. Following up on the church’s three priorities: evangelism, racial reconciliation and justice and care of creation
6. Formulating the 2019-2021 triennial budget: accepted $134 million three-year spending plan
7. Middle East peace: of 15 resolutions on Israel-Palestine, only six passed both houses, on topics including Palestinian children, the status of Jerusalem, the disproportionate use of lethal force on both sides, and ways the Episcopal Church can press for peace through its investment decisions

Other GC79 big topics and actions of interest:

• Resolutions on ethical investing in gun manufacturers and retailers: develop and implement a shareholder engagement plan based on the Mosbacher-Bennett Principles for Investors in the Gun Industry
• Episcopal Church of Cuba admitted as a diocese: Our Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves who was born and raised in Florida was there to welcome Bishop Griselda Delgado Del Carpio to the House of Bishops
• Lesser Feasts and Fasts and the calendar of saints are a step closer to revision
• Thurgood Marshall, Pauli Murray, and Florence Li Tim-Oi are now permanent saints of the church
• Bishop Mary was re-elected as Vice President of the House of Bishops.
• Passed a resolution to “Establish an Advisory Council on Disability and Deaf Access” – to reduce exclusion in the life of the church
• In addition to resolutions supporting immigrants and their families, a thousand Episcopalians protested at the ICE Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas, on 8 July 2018.  Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the event was inspiring: We come because we are people of love. America Means Welcome. America is great because America is good.

Part of General Convention is spending casual time with the remarkable people who attend – and visiting Exhibit Hall booths of programs and institutions and vendors. I bought so many books I had to ship them home in a separate box – which has not yet arrived. Pictures below are of some of the other giveaways and publications I collected. On my flight home from Texas to California, I spotted Dr. Catherine Meeks of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing who gave a remarkable talk at GC79. The Rev. Rob Fisher of our Deputation reported that he spent his flight home reading The Agile Church, which he bought at the GC79 Exhibit Hall.

These blog posts and other GC79 news are on the Diocese of El Camino Real website. Here is my complete set from GC79 as the official diocesan  blogger:

• Episcopal General Convention, Austin Texas, Day 1, 4 July 2018
• Day 2, Episcopal General Convention, 5 July 2018
• Day 3, Episcopal General Convention, 6 July 2018
• Day 4, General Convention, 7 July 2018
• Day 5, General Convention, 8 July 2018
• Day 6, General Convention, 9 July 2018
• Day 7, General Convention, 10 July 2018
• Day 8, General Convention, 11 July 2018
• Day 9, General Convention, 12 July 2018

On 16 July 2018, Episcopal News Service published a summary of GC79.

Note that the GC79 Virtual Binder will only be available online through Labor Day (3 September 2018).

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Images Copyright 2018 by Katy Dickinson.

Shakespeare in Ashland for our 16th Anniversary

John and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary last weekend with a road trip to Ashland, Oregon.  On the drive north from San Jose, we visited the Nut Tree Train in Vacaville and saw Shasta Lake full of water (a welcome sight after a long drought).

While in Ashland, we enjoyed a clever and entertaining production of Twelfth Night by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (set in 1930’s Hollywood, with twins Viola and Sebastian doubled by one actress), celebrated with an excellent dinner with Rogue River Valley wine at Amuse Restaurant, and enjoyed long walks in historic Lithia Park.

On the drive home, we visited our favorite rock shop (Consolidated Rock & Mineral in Vacaville) and commemorated our anniversary with the purchase of a Crinoidea sea lily double fossil, originating in the Paleozoic Era by way of Morocco. On the way home, we had dinner at Bud’s Pub & Grill in Dixon, which has more animal hunting trophies hanging on its walls than anyplace I have seen. It was a delightful celebration!

Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson

Diplomacy and Community-Building

Just over a year ago, I was in Salt Lake City as one of the Official Bloggers from the Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR) for the Episcopal General Convention (GC).  At GC, I witnessed remarkable diplomacy and community-building, especially with regard to the historic approval of the very controversial resolutions to create marriage equality in the Episcopal Church.  The way this debate was managed has become my standard for excellence in respectful balancing of sides during heartfelt controversy.  An excerpt from my 1 July 2015 post:

“Marriage equality has been passionately discussed for 39 years in our church and even today there were serious, prayerful, and heartfelt objections raised.  Rev. Gay Clark Jennings (President of the House of Deputies, HofD) asked that the House maintain decorum and respect – as celebrations on one side could only be hurtful to our brothers and sisters taking the opposite view. Chaplain Rev. Lester V. Mackenzie lead HofD in prayer and song before each vote. Over a thousand people were present for this historic decision. We will be processing what is means to us and to our church for many years to come.”

In a highly-local and much less important community debate, on 28 June 2016, the San Jose Mayor and City Council voted to approve that the highly-controversial Road Diet be made permanent in my home neighborhood of Willow Glen.  This final decision was welcomed by many and deeply regretted by as many.  The way the discussion was handled did little to rebuild the community strength that the discussion has eroded during the last year. My husband John Plocher and I were among those who formally spoke against the decision, out of about a dozen citizens who were given one minute each to address the Mayor and City Council.  We only came away with a tiny win: as part of making the “Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project” permanent, the City Council also voted to ban adult bicyclists from riding on the sidewalks of Lincoln Avenue – a welcome change for the better!

I wrote on 17 June 2016  how the problems with the Willow Glen Road Diet sort into categories, of which one was Community Trust:

“The way that the Road Diet was managed caused anger and mistrust of city government among most of the people I interviewed.  …  Many Willow Glen residents are looking forward to electing a new City Council representative in November 2016.  Of the five problems, this loss of trust has the greatest destructive potential for our community.”

When I compare the diplomacy and sensitivity with which the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings managed the raging discussions last summer with the rough  “take it or leave it” style in which our local Road Diet controversy was managed, I feel that San Jose’s leadership does not shine.  I hope that now the decision is made, San Jose’s City Council and neighborhood groups like the Willow Glen Business Association (WGBA), and Willow Glen Neighborhood Association (WGNA) will start to rebuild the community peace that was lost to the Road Diet controversy.

WGBA Board meetings are open to the public: 8 am on the Second Tuesday of Every Month, at the Willow Glen Community Center (2175 Lincoln Ave., San José).

The next WGNA Board meeting will be Thursday, 28 July starting at 7 pm at the Willow Glen Public Library (1157 Minnesota Ave., San José). Meeting is open to Members and Residents.

Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Lovely 15th Anniversary Train Ride: Amtrak (Salt Lake City – Emeryville)

John Plocher and I were married 15 years ago on 4 July 2000, so on our way back from two weeks at the Episcopal General Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, we took the train. Amtrak’s California Zephyr goes across vast lovely spaces on its way west. John booked a Superliner Bedroom for our 15 hour trip. Of course, the train was running hours late (don’t get me started on why America’s basic infrastructure is so poorly supported) but we had planned for that. We boarded in Salt Lake City just as the day dawned and got into Emeryville, California, long after sunset. We saw plains and mountains, farms and ranches, towns and cities. Other trains passed us and we even went slowly through the vast Union Pacific Roseville Yard, so John got his fill of trains for once. It was a glorious day.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

“America the Beautiful” 1910 by Katharine Lee Bates

Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson