Tai Chi at MCC for relaxation and growth inside

One of my blessings is while dealing with Mom sick in the hospital is Madisonville Community College atmosphere and how the Tai Chi class helps me cope and relax. As a care giver, it is hard to take time for yourself. It is a good blessing that folks I can look up to are good influences in my life. One thing we talked about in between three sets of forms was what heroes we have for good things. So you could think to things like Jane Goodall, a scientific hero of mine, Ben Franklin a childhood hero, Cousteau, Steve Irwin, Issac Asimov, Leo Laporte for technology reporting on TechTV etc., James Hancock a Madisonville post man and expert bird watcher who I used to do Christmas bird counts with in support, Paul Summers who is the most honest politician I ever knew, Don Hayes who mentored me in the office and who shows best how best to live your life, Charlie Basset who worked with me for many a year and who was one of the WWII veterans who made this world safe like my Uncle Donald and Uncle Buford, my teachers who taught me how to think and learn to love learning, and spiritual influences like Christ, John Wesley, Paul Cartwright who as a circuit rider preached with two pistols on the pulpit in the 1700's, Paul, Barnabas, Peter, Buddha, and Silas.  We all are the sum of the positive and negative influences in our lives and I was lucky to have good parents, family, and was lucky enough to have many good friends that enrich my life from the Van Sandt's, Greg, Jim, Nancy, and Ann Wilson, the Madison family, and now Larry and Cherri Neisz I got to know recently as neighbors. I worked with an extended family that meant a lot to me as co workers and operators I inspected for years. Many folks are not that blessed. But heroes can include ordinary folks not famous that simply do good things to make the world a better place like Sue Ann Salmon I know from Madisonville, Mrs. Sigler my Ky History teacher at Providence, Rella Jenkins my guidance counselor from MCC days, and many a fire marshall, EMT, fireman and policeman I saw in action at spills regularly doing heroic things well.  Part of growing as a person is being nurtured by good influences in your life. Now that I am retired I look at going back to MCC after a full career for fun things like my Tai Chi class as a circle of life that has been enriched by encountering folks all this time. I have even added new friends in my class now. Just like my barn family includes Trinity Stables and Hazel and Frank's for learning about horses and riding- and Tai Chi also helps with riding well- I am lucky enough to have many friends and family that help add to my life.

I was recently thinking about popular culture links to our every day life. I like to collect old radio programs as mp3's, and enjoy even the commercials from the 1930's and 1940's when radio was the Internet of its day for communication. The Shadow was an influence with Zorro for the Batman, Sherlock Holmes was an influence for every detective that came afterwards, and many a scientific concept came from Issac Asimov, Sir Arther Clarke, EE Doc Smith, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Heinlin etc. into popular culture even in the history of some words. Issac Asimov for example added the Three Laws of Robotics used in even other media. Just because something is of popular culture also does not mean it is not culture. Even Charles Dickens was a popular culture in his day with crowds reported at the dock waiting for the ship to arrive with the latest edition of the magazine publishing installments of his stories with the cry, "What of Little Nell?" Now that is success in popular media that still now is studied in school, and I have in a card game called Authors!

Live long and prosper and may all your cultural moments be popular and uplifting.