L.C. Clark's Blog, page 10

Lifestyle Choice with Dialysis

   When I was diagnosed with end stage kidney failure, I was given an orientation to help me choose the kind of treatment that would fit me.  The choices were peritoneal and hemodialysis.  
From: http://kidney.org.au   “In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid called dialysate, which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.”  This means that a catheter (plastic tube) is installed in the belly by surgery.  Then a cleansing fluid is pumped into the belly through the catheter.  That is the filtering process.  When that is done, the fluid leaves your body through the catheter.  
   I did not choose the peritoneal dialysis because the catheter will remain dangling on my belly 24/7 until it’s removed by surgery.  Keeping it clean would be a chore.  If I should mess it up by some carelessness it could kill me.  I will not be able to soak in the tub which I love or go swimming in the hot springs and beaches of the Philippines.  Soaking in water could infect the catheter or allow bacteria to run through it and kill me.  However, this one is painless after the surgery and convenient because I can do it at home or while traveling.  I can do it at night so I can get employed during the day.  I can bring the supply of cleansing fluid with me so travel and vacations are not encumbered. 
   I chose the hemodialysis.  I will have to go to a dialysis center three times a week, stay three hours and fifteen minutes plus the time it takes to hook me up to the machine and to pull me off it.  This choice involves pain from two big needles used to hook up and painful occasional Fistulagram, a procedure to remove blood clot from the dialysis access vein or graft.  
From: http://www.nephrologynews.com/   With hemodialysis I can’t travel to places where I won’t have a dialysis center.  Vacation days are interrupted by dialysis treatment every other day.  So when I fly to the Philippines, my dialysis is arranged with a center for the duration of my stay.  Medicare does not pay outside of the US so the dialysis while traveling is paid out of pocket.  
   With the pain, expense and inconvenience of in-center hemodialysis, why did I pick it?  I don’t have a bathtub in California.  On a trip to the Philippines, I get to swim once if I’m lucky.  Are pain, expense and inconvenience worth not having a catheter dangling on my belly that no one else is going to see?  I guess it’s just me being me.
See also:Time Travel Living on Dialysis Racial Bullying

Home

   Which one is the better home?  Is it the lavish home that is miserably dark and cold because the residents are always out traveling the world.  Is it the average home that is empty because the owners are busy working three jobs to make ends meet.  Then, there is the home of the poor called shanty in the Philippines, located in the urban poor zones called squatters’ area.  They can be demolished any day.  Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on them all.  Rich or poor are offered free Bible publications and Bible study, as Matthew 10:8 says, “Jesus sent out, giving them these instructions… You received free, give free.”
   The thing is a home can be anything.  For some, it’s a cardboard box, a park bench, under bridges, abandoned buildings, or just a spot in the pavement.  Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on them all offering free Bible publications and Bible study because Jesus said “And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth” (Matthew 24:14)

   The above seemed to have covered all, but not quite.  There is the nomad homeless one will not find staying in a cardboard box, a park bench, under bridges, abandoned buildings, or just a spot in the pavement.  These are those homeless who continuously walk the earth searching for the next meal in the next garbage can.  People shun them as they smell of urine and look dangerously crazy.  Jehovah God looks at them and see pitiful creatures.  How can they be given the “good news of the Kingdom”?  

   Jehovah God provides them the cart witnessing that stands in almost every corner of the metropolis giving away free Bible publications so they will know Isaiah 65:21-22 “They will build houses and live in them…  They will not build for someone else to inhabit,” 
   In the present system, the construction workers never get to own the home they build.  God’s words in Isaias 65: 21-22 is a promise of a new system right here on earth, not in heaven, where everyone can have a place to call home.  Like mortgage, one can pre-qualify.  Just read the Bible and apply.  

   
See also:What Creates Homelessness The God of the Poor Who Created Sunday

Time Travel

   I loved traveling when I was young.  Each trip was an adventure, each left unique memories.  
From: http://www.everythingcebu.com   My daughter and I took the Star Cruise to Cebu Island.  The mess hall converted to a bar/disco after dinner.  They had a good band playing.  The lead guitarist kept looking at us.  Then my daughter said, the guy was looking at me.  He couldn’t be over thirty. Cute! But my daughter was in college and I was in my 40’s.  I let that one get away. 
   Around those days, I told my daughter I was visiting a friend in Calasiao, Pangasinan over the weekend.  I failed to come home on Monday so I called the office for an emergency day off.  My daughter came to the office expecting me to be there.  The Admin Manager told her “Your mom isn’t back.  She’s with her boyfriend from Pangasinan.”  Imagine my daughter’s reaction!
   Here in the US, I traveled with my friend Margarita.  We did road trips from Louisville, Kentucky to Indiana.  We drove from San Francisco to Big Sur and Monterey.  Then we took the boat ride to Alcatraz.   With Margarita and her husband in Indiana   Now the airport has turned into a stressful place.  If a terrorist attack doesn’t catch you, the ICE could.  Since the last US election, airport hospitality has flown out and crashed.  Good thing I don’t have the budget to travel.  
   So, what do I do now?  I journey through time.  My writing has prodded me to go back to 1969, when I was innocent and loved to dance.  With my imagination, I met up with some friends and lovers, some of whom have slept in death.  
   My third book is set from 1898 to only God knows in what year it would end.  It’s amazing to visualize with memories of my grandmother’s stories what I never saw with my own eyes.  Below are three paragraphs from the book titled The Matriarchs of Cavite.
An employee of the Cedar Lake Ice & Fuel Co.
slipped a cold one into the ice box of a Minneapolis home
 in about 1930. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)   “The food was excellent but the two could hardly chew.  Swallowing was difficult as if their throats have closed.  A little wine might have helped but the wine, imported from America, was served to matured guests only.  The young got iced water which was a luxury in the absence of refrigerators.

   Homes had something in the kitchen called non-electrical ice box, a heavily insulated box to keep ice from melting.  The Americans brought over the business of ice manufacturing plant.  Blocks of ice were delivered to homes and stores in the morning.” 

   On another page:
   “The homes built before the electric fan arrived in the Philippines had wide windows and high ceilings.  The Spanish descent elites had fabric fans hanging from the ceiling with strings pulled by housemaids to swing.”  
   Some ice plants still exist in the Philippines to supply the fishing industry.  A sample of the fabric fan hangs in the home of the National Hero Jose Rizal in Calamba, Laguna.  
   This third book is promising to be my masterpiece, if I could live long enough to finish it.
See also: A Filipina's View of Rural Kentucky Nature's ToysThe Iron Lady

The Vow of Faithfulness

   The vow “till death do us part”, in any language or version, originated from the Book of Common Prayer, published in 1549, an upshot of King Henry VIII’s break from the Roman Catholic Church.  For centuries, the phrase “till death do us part” has been unconsciously borrowed and used as part of the marriage vow that we were all led to believe came from the Bible.  It is ironic that the vow was created owing to a king’s desire for divorce and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn, the wife he  later ordered beheaded. 
My Philippine Marriage Contract   The Philippines has no divorce law.  No matter how long or what circumstance the married couples have been separated, they are forbidden by the Catholic Church and law of the land to remarry.  However, the Bible’s stand on divorce is, as Jesus, himself had spoken, “However, I say to you that everyone divorcing his wife, except on account of sexual immorality, makes her a subject for adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32)  This explicitly mean that Jehovah, the God of the Bible, allowed for divorce if sexual immorality has been committed.

   In their adherence to Bible principles, Jehovah’s Witness in the Philippines have something called Vow of Faithfulness.  This Vow of Faithfulness is not legally binding.  It can’t be used for any legal claim of benefits.  This is a three way vow between Jehovah God and the couple.  The only purpose is to make the marriage honorable in the sight of Jehovah.  The vow does not say “till death do us part”, rather it says “I recognize this relationship as a binding tie before Jehovah…to be held to and honored in full accord with the principles of God’s word” referring to 1 Corinthians 7:11-12, “To the married people I give instructions, not I but the Lord, that a wife should not separate from her husband.  But if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled with her husband; and a husband should not leave his wife.”  A break of the relationship could result in disfellowshipping of one or both.

[image error] My US Marriage Certificate   Whether the nuptial document used  is a marriage contract, a marriage certificate or a vow of faithfulness, in the final analysis they are all made of paper and ink.  Love and commitment is written in the heart where it lives until the last beat.  
My Vow of Faithfulness   The love of my life came home to the Philippines from the US in 1996.  The two of us met with Bethel authorities (Philippine Branch Office of Jehovah's Witnesses) to request the privilege to do the vow.  We said our vows.  He left me the morning after  without saying goodbye.  He stayed with me a total of three days.  It was like he came home only to have the Vow of Faithfulness with me.  He died in the US 18 months later.  By that vow, I know in my heart this is the man I will be with in paradise.See also: Greatest Love Story One Adam for One Eve The Girl at the Airport

     

F. B. Harrison Avenue, Pasay City

   History is shaded by the ideology of the historian.  In elementary and high school I was taught that the Americans colonized the Philippines, out of the goodness of their heart, to teach the Filipinos how to govern themselves.  In college, I was taught that the Americans came to exploit the Philippine mines and enslave the Filipinos.  The truth is never in just one side of the story.  Usually it’s all over and in between.

Francis Burton Harrison
From: wikipedia.org   Francis Burton Harrison was a relative of US founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee.  He was the Private Secretary to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  The Confederacy was a breakaway 11 states fighting to keep their slaves.  Those states opposed the election of President Abraham Lincoln who ran on a platform of abolishing slavery.  Today's white supremacy racists wave the confederate flag as their own.

   Harrison served in the United States House of Representatives and was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to be Governor-General of the Philippines.  Despite his confederacy back ground, as Governor-General of the Philippines, he initiated Filipinization, the process of sharing authority to Filipinos in preparation for inevitable independence.  He went against conservative Americans who thought his role was to support U.S. interests.
   “The Filipinization policies of Harrison... increased not only the number of Filipinos working in government, but also the number of Filipinos holding responsible positions in government.  The legislature passed the Reorganization Act of 1916 which provided that all department secretaries should be Filipino citizens.  Harrison also allowed the creation of new departments all headed by Filipinos.” (https://www.coursehero.com)
   Manuel L. Quezon, the first President of the Commonwealth asked Harrison to be his principal advisor.  “In 1936, Harrison expressed interest in acquiring Filipino citizenship but did not fulfill the required years of residency under the Naturalization Law.  Upon Manuel Quezon's initiative, the National Assembly passed Commonwealth Act No. 79, making Harrison a naturalized Filipino citizen.”  While Filipinos struggled to attain US citizenship, Harrison cherished his Filipino citizenship.  
   From Governor-General of the Philippines beginning in 1913, Harrison served the Filipinos in different capacities.  After the Philippine independence in 1946, Harrison served as an advisor to the first four presidents of the new Philippine Republic.  
   Harrison died on November 21, 1957 as a Filipino citizen.  He willed that he be buried in the Philippines.  He was interred with the image of Philippine flag alongside the American flag in the Manila North Cemetery in La Loma, Manila.  A street was named after him, F.B. Harrison Avenue which starts in Baclaran, Parañaque through Pasay City and ends in Pablo Ocampo Street (formerly Vito Cruz) in the City of Manila.
See also:Sesame Street versus Ibarra St. Breaking Barriers Pasay City Kids

An Open Letter to President Vladimir Putin

Dear President Vladimir V. Putin
   I ventured to write this letter because I believe you are a good man, however the foreign media paints you.  The Bible says “be in subjection to the superior authorities... the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God.” (Romans 13:1)  As Jehovah’s Witness I believe all that is written in the Bible.  The above passage refers to you, the President of Russia.
   On March 15, 2017, the Ministry of Justice in Russia filed a claim with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation seeking “to declare the religious organization, the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses, extremist, ban its activity, and liquidate it.” A decision by the Supreme Court in favor of this claim will have dire consequences for all of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.
   Russia’s “Federal Law on Extremist Activity” is being misapplied to Jehovah’s Witnesses.  We, Jehovah’s Witnesses, are not extremist in the political context of the word.  We only fall extreme in our adherence to Bible principles which preach love of God and neighbor, love for family, and respect for government.  We strive to be good citizens. We are known worldwide for our peaceful activities, and under no circumstances would we ever resort to any activity that is criminal in nature.
   In college, I read Karl Marx and he says “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world.”  I appreciate the laws of the Russian government that guarantee freedom of religion to all citizens.  I implore your intervention to stop the legal action being taken against the Jehovah’s Witnesses branch office and congregations in Russia.  We only ask that we be allowed to continue to gather peacefully for Christian meetings without interference.
   President Putin, you are a powerful man placed in your position by God.  Please return His favor by protecting his people.
   Thank you for your consideration and attention.  Sincerely yours  Lori C. Clark (This same letter has been mailed to President Putin.)

Losing No. 2

Politicians and entertainment celebrities couldn’t care less about how they are perceived.  Defying the norms of correctness used to merit looks and whispers in the olden times.  These days, it garners scathing comments in the Internet.  News, comedians and pundits rehash every wrong word, decision or action in YouTube where it will live for eternity.  It makes one wonder how the subject of such scrutiny can live with themselves.  How do they face their friends and neighbors in the morning after a Saturday Night Live ridicule?
   Typical Filipinos go to great lengths to avoid being talked about in a bad light.  They’re not even celebrities.  This is partially due to cultural and religious standards of morality.  I was raised in a family that said “What will people say?!” every time I broke the norm in my youth.  And I broke a lot of them.  That gave me a feeling of living with an invisible judge hovering over me.
   I had my eyelids surgically done to better hold eye makeup.  I worked out with leg weights and dumbbells for decades to keep my size and shape swimsuit material.  Rich or poor I picked my wardrobe carefully to always reflect a touch of class.  All those because I heard “I have a responsibility to my fans.”  Celebrity or not, we all have fans, or these days, haters.
   I dated too soon and married too young.  Our neighborhood in Pasay City gossiped like TMZ, checking out every guy I brought home.  My parents secretly cried in shame and disapproval.  Despite my family’s effort not to meddle and helped out every step of the way, I failed my first marriage.
   To avoid further embarrassment, I hung on to husband No.2 for 25 years.  Those 25 years started on the wrong foot but a second failure was not an option.  I decided to punish myself with a voluntary incarceration.  I worked, raised the kids, and stayed unhappily ever after.  In the court of public opinion I was able to redeem myself.  
   At the tail end of the 25 years, I studied the Bible. I realized there was only one opinion that mattered, Jehovah God’s, as specifically stated in Matthew 5:32 “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
   Husband No.1 was not cheating on me.  I committed a crime against my first husband, our son and God.  I did my time.  After 25 years, I gave myself parole.
See also:Losing No.1 Google It The God of the Poor

Alternative Facts

   “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25)
   This year a new term, a very cunning white washed word for lies has been invented.   A newly famous woman who has contributed nothing to uplift human existence called lies “alternative facts”.   The world accepted the term.   However, the belief in alternative fact is not new.  Here are two that have survived centuries.
   The Virgin Mary remained a virgin all her life. People believed this because the thought that Jesus' mother would have sex with her husband Joseph is unacceptable. The Bible says in Matthew 12:47 "Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you” referring to Mary with Jesus' earthly brothers.
   Then in Matthew 13:55 it says “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?"  Clearly the passage is not referring to spiritual brothers because the speaker was simply trying to identify Jesus in a crowd of strangers.  The brothers mentioned included a Joseph.  Compared to the list of the 12 apostles, there was no apostle named Joseph.  Joseph could not possibly be referring to Mary's husband because the speaker says in the same breath “the carpenter’s son” which means he knew Joseph, the carpenter, as Jesus’s father not one of his brothers. 
   Clearly, Mary had 4 more son's after Jesus which should not be unthinkable because she was a lawfully wedded wife and commits no transgression in having Joseph’s children.  The Bible can’t lie so obviously someone made up an alternative fact.
   “The development of Chinese characters pre-dates the writing of the Book of Genesis …the Chinese characters seem to provide an ‘independent’ record of the events in Genesis.” (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hanzi_of_Genesis)  This refers to Moses writing the Book of Genesis 7:13 “On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark,” a total of eight people on a large boat.  
   In Genesis 11:1-9, the Bible narrates how the different languages were given to mankind. It follows that, that was when different alphabets and characters were created.  The Chinese character for large ship is a combination of people, eight and boat.     The Shang dynasty ruled in China during 1600-1046 BCE.  After having an "independent record" of Noah's ark the religion of the Shang was based on veneration of the ancestors, which is farthest from Bible truth.
   “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” - Mark Twain
See also:Interesting Bible Trivia Who Created Sunday Creator of Poverty

The Essence of Collagen

   Collagen was first discovered in the 1930’s.  It is a fibrous protein that supports tissues.  It has tensile strength and found in fascia, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, bone and skin.  Tensile strength, a quality of rubber, is responsible for elasticity.  The lack of collagen leads to facial wrinkles, vein weakness and could lead to eye deterioration from the wear and tear of veins in the eyes.  
   The most common use of collagen is anti-aging component in cosmetics.  Finding one that has collagen would be more expensive than what’s commonly sold.  Collagen can now be added to cosmetics that don’t have it.  There is a pure collagen in liquid form sold in Ichiban Kan, in Tanforan Mall, in San Bruno, California.  
   I have added collagen to my Eskinol, a skin toner I have been using since high school.  A little amount of Eskinol in facial cotton takes left over make-up and dirt that soap and water leave behind.  Whenever I was sick and can’t shower, I use Eskinol all over my body.  It is available in most Asian stores.  By the way, I have also added Vitamin E by cutting my Vitamin E capsule in two and dumping in the Eskinol bottle.  Similarly, I have added collagen to my Olay beauty fluid lotion and Eucerin body lotion.

   My daughter bought a powdered collagen gelatin that she adds to her tea or coffee.  She swears it cleared up her skin and erased her start-up wrinkles.  She’s in her mid30’s and shouldn’t have to worry about wrinkles but vanity runs in the family.  
   In my 50’s I got away with taking a decade off my age.  Now I need a little help.  I am contemplating on adding the edible collagen to my soda or desert.  Let’s see if the gelatin collagen does something for me. 
See also:Living on Dialysis Be Kind to Your Eyes DNA, Wine and Injustice

Winterizing Your Home

   In the Philippines, I saw winter only in the movies or television.  I thought the freezing point temperature was below zero.  That was what I heard in films.  

   In Kentucky, I learned that freezing point is 32ᵒF.  That’s way above zero.  There we usually got below 32ᵒF all the way to what weather forecasters called “teens”, 19ᵒF to 13ᵒF during spring and fall.  In winter, it actually went down to what weather forecast called “single digits”, 9ᵒF to way below zero which had a negative sign after zero, -1ᵒF to -9ᵒF.  Homes, whether big or small have centralized heating.  Portable heaters can supplement but would not be sufficient to use on its own.  Thus, the heating cost, supplied by gas takes a big chunk of the monthly budget.
   Winterizing my windows was something I learned to save on heating.  Whether the window is new or old, cold air seep through the cracks.  There are winterizing kits available in home improvement stores such as Lowe's or Home Depot.  The kit contains a sturdy transparent plastic and a roll of very thin double sided tape.  The plastic covers the entire window and taped without a gap to prevent leakage of warm air and seepage of cold.  
   Since I moved to San Francisco, I’ve been living in the same place for three years.  This winter is almost over but the snow storms up in the northeast are felt all the way here.  I have been waking up in the middle of the night to turn on my portable heater for a few minutes.  I ordered a winterizing kit on line and installed it on my bedroom window yesterday.  Last night I slept through the storm raging outside my window. 
   It’s almost spring but San Francisco summer days come down to 40ᵒF, courtesy of the Pacific Ocean coast.  Pacific Ocean extends from Antarctica passing San Francisco to Australia.  Antarctica is the coldest place on earth.  The lowest temperature recorded in Antarctica is -89ᵒC.  The wind blowing on the surface of the sea water that came from Antarctica deprives San Francisco of summer as we know it. 
    I am anticipating a considerable saving on electricity which powers my portable heater.  Our landlord pays for heating our small place called “in-law apartment” common in San Francisco but  that’s no excuse to allow energy wastage.  Every little thing counts in conserving this planet Jehovah God so lovingly created for our benefit. (Gen. 1:29-31)  
See also:Climate Change is a Poverty Issue Nature’s Water Park The Women of Asia