Hi Nicole,
Here there is constant advertising about deodorant, shampoo, make-up, bath
products, special insoles so feet don't smell. It has been going on for generations so most people have been thoroughly taught not to be offensive to others.
Soon there will be a kind of socks that never smell. They will be made of nanofibres. I suppose then the kids will be able to wear them forever.
Once a high school kid came with another black kid to stay at our house while attending a school affair in our city. They both went to a high school in the south of our valley. They were about 17 years old. The black kid was fine, but the other one had stinking feet when he took off his shoes. He didn't seem to notice it at all! My kids and I discussed what we should do. Our youngest daughter, about ten years old then and already a bit of a bird of a different feather from the rest of us, volunteered to go and tell him to wash his socks and his feet. She did. And he did it.
That boy had the most deliberately innocent blue eyes, but he was an inveterate
liar. I have often wondered what he's doing now. The black kid went to the Julliard School of Music in New York city and is an orchestra conductor. He lives
in Europe now. He still stays in touch with us from time to time. He let his hair grow long in the Rastafarian style so I think he doesn't look like the very
clean-cut young man he was at 17, but I doubt very much that he stinks. I think
he's searching for a culture to call his own. It is very difficult to be cut off from your ancestral roots. It feels like being a water lily floating on the
surface of the water looking fine, but not attached underneath.
I once read that Michelangelo worked so long and hard on the Sistine Chapel ceiling that when he took off his boots the skin came with them like a pair of socks
.
I very rarely ever smell anybody's underarm odor. Even in stores where people who are pretty poor shop I hardly ever smell it. I think to smell is considered
very low. The ones who have the problem must be street people who have no homes
.
It's a fad among some youth to wear ragged clothes or shave the head. Others wear baseball caps on backwards. Some dye their hair weird colours. Some wear very low hanging, gigantic pants. These are fads. I think it's partly defiance of societal rules, but then society is presently so stupidly focussed mainly on money and the bottom line, to the detriment of our planet, our health, and the lives of many species and they talk about it in school. Youth know it's their future that is being damaged. No wonder if they reject. Some shave their heads to
look like right wing punks, though. Some shave their heads to look stronger.
Some older ones shave them because they are losing their hair and think they will look younger without any. Lots of them are actually nice underneath it all.
Occasionally some of them are very bad people. Some kinds of young women are becoming more violent and fighting each other physically. I don't mean for sport.
I'm glad I'm old enough to avoid all that kind of lifestyle, but there have been people killed. It only happens occasionally here and there across this huge
country, but any being killed that way is more than enough. A 14 year old girl
named was Rina Verk was kicked to death and drowned about three years ago because she wasn't popular but wanted to be part of the popular group. The 17 year old girl who kicked her and drowned her and the young man who was also there and may have helped are both in prison. Other youth were there, too. It happened on
Vancouver Island in a tough area under a big bridge.
When I said that most people would have let the poor old man who was ill withcancer have their seat that was basically true. But not everywhere, just as
it is probably basically true among all of you, but not everywhere. A man
was beaten and kicked to death on a bus in Edmonton about a month ago, because he asked three wild teenaged boys to be quieter. The bus was mostly full of women and girls and nobody went to his aid. The bus driver called 911, which is police emergency, and it took the police a half hour to get there. Even for the sake of the environment I don't think that people will want to ride on the buses in the Edmonton area, unless they must. After talking to their parents the three
young men confessed to the police. From court the rotters were actually allowed out on bail! Maybe because they had confessed.
College kids who live in dorms can get away with intentionally and carelessly stinking, but I don't think they would get away with it at home. Their parents wouldn't be able to stand them. There would be a lot of trouble about it in the home.
I think civilization is crumbling. It is necessary to find your own
inner ground on which to stand, and try to have a group of like-minded friends.
Work to keep your family loving and unified, and close to your heart. We needgood marriages. They are "fortresses for well-being" as Baha'u'llah told us. Iam glad I'm a Baha'i because it is good structure in which to live, and for me
it supplies inner ground with which I agree. It has given me all the guidance I could possibly need and I see the results.
I hope each of you find your own inner ground on which to stand. I see that
many of you are intent on being good citizens of your beloved homeland and that
is good ground, as long as it doesn't become nationalism and jingoism. A sanepatriotism is an excellent thing.
Most Canadians or their forebears came here to escape danger. That's one of the
reasons for our Canadian character. It is part of our national nature to mind our own business, live and let live, be courteous and apologise even when it was
the other person who bumped us. Push too far and we become very determined. Of
course, all of us aren't like this, but it is the general nature here. We don't
wave our flag a lot, and talk about our country right or wrong. So I hope you
don't take what I've described as bragging. Basically we all want to be left in
peace, and to live and let live. If somebody doesn't like you they'll probably
just avoid you.
Anyway, that's the way I see it. How do you see the Chinese national character
as being, generally speaking? I think the previous history of a country and of
the country's inhabitants moulds national character. Since many of ours have come here because they fled persecution in their homelands right from the beginning of this country, the desire for peace is strong among us. It isn't easy to be
a peace-loving country when others who are stronger exert pressure on you to support them.
Oh how wonderful! I just looked out the window to see a huge fat wild cock pheasant strolling down the hill in our wild back yard. These are among the most beautifully coloured and marked birds. The maleshave brilliant plumage of gleaming red, copper, sparkling green, black and white
. They are the size of a good sized chicken but much handsomer. I'm so glad that our wild yard attracted such a wonderful pheasant. I can't imagine why anybody would ever shoot such a creature for sport!
With warm good wishes, Mary
