A TREASURE OF CONNECTION IN SAMARKAND
When I read Joel Wade’s exceptional essay on The Treasures of Human Connection, with his example of a “mico-moment of connection” being a ”nice conversation we have with the checkout person at the grocery store,” this Uzbek lady came to mind.
She manages a store of pottery art – you can see how gorgeous it is – in the legendary Silk Road oasis of Samarkand. Welcoming me, she explained she was talking to her daughter on her cell phone. I bought something irresistibly pretty, but before I left, I asked if I could take her picture as I was taken by her warmth and friendliness. The picture you see captures that, especially in her eyes.
Samarkand is in Uzbekistan deep in the heart of Central Asia. It’s as remote and exotic as you can get from your local grocery store. Yet a micro-moment of human connection can occur in Samarkand just as it can in your hometown.
We travel around the globe to see world-famous sights and spectacular wonders, but so often it is the special people we meet – if only for a micro-moment – that make our journeys so memorable.
I’ve talked often about Central Asia in these Glimpses – from The Sultan Astronomer to Teenagers in Bukhara, from The Well of Job to The Pearls of Shing and Surrealism in Central Asia.
I won’t be again for some time – as the deadline for you joining me on my exploration of The Heart of Central Asia is nigh. Exploring Central Asia is one of the most extraordinary experiences our planet has to offer, and as I won’t be doing this again, it’s now or never to make it a part of your life. Don’t pass it by – carpe diem: The Heart of Central Asia – Sept 18-Oct 4, 2022. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #215 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHY VOTERS WILL DELIVER DEMS A BUTT-KICKING IN NOVEMBER
I’ve been saying this from the start — 2022 is ours to lose. In less than 2 years of Joe Biden’s presidency and the Democrat Party’s takeover in Washington, we have only:
Rip-roaring inflation, empty shelves, mothers who can’t find baby formula, a dangerous invasion at our Southern border, drugs and criminals marching in everyday, escalating spending and debt, a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that cost 13 Americans their lives, radical indoctrination of our children in schools and rising crime.
Now we are 4 months away from the 2022 midterms, and Republicans have a message of hope for our country. We are on the right side of the issues, and we are pushing forward.
The American people are going to deliver a complete butt-kicking to the Democrats this November. The Red Wave will sweep the nation and here are just a few reasons why.
JILL BIDEN DISCOVERS HER KARMA RHYMES WITH RICH
Taco Jill
Anyone who watched the unlikely Biden campaign unfold as it did knows that Jill Biden, not-a-medical doctor, is largely responsible for the disaster that is her husband's presidency.
She, more than anyone else, knew that Joe was suffering from advancing dementia, yet she signed on to the far left's plan to exile Trump no matter what the cost.
Whatever made her and the cabal that rigged the election six ways to Sunday think they could pull it off proves they are all power mad idiots. They apparently thought they could put old Joe out there as a front and implement their treasured Marxist green policies, force the middle and working classes to submit, and preserve their elite status and survive.
That is not going to happen.
THE ARIRANG MASS GAMES IN NORTH KOREA
The spectacle takes place in the fall at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang. I attended in 2010 and 2012. It has to be seen to be believed. You’re looking at 10,000 dancers, acrobats and performers on the stadium floor. The background screen of a rising sun and Korean letters is a “card stunt,” 30,000 students holding colored cards composing it.
The number “65” is for the 65th anniversary of the surrender of Imperial Japan in World War II (August 15, 1945 – I took this photo in 2010), their Liberation Day (our V-J Day). The snowy mountain depicted below the 65 is Mount Paekdu, where all North Koreans are taught their country’s founder Kim Il-sung defeated the Japanese and won the war (he was actually at a Soviet army camp near Khabarovsk, Siberia at the time).
They are never taught a word about the events a few days prior to their Liberation Day (i.e. Hiroshima and Nagasaki), nor to whom the Japanese surrendered. Hands down, NorkLand is the world’s most bizarre country. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #88 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH TREASURES OF HUMAN CONNECTION
[Note by Jack Wheeler: In all the time Joel has been sharing his wisdom on TTP, this is truly exceptional. Please take it to heart, as it will do your heart and mind a world of good. It’s such a clear example of the value of his course, which I’m studying right now. I can’t recommend it more highly – especially with the bargain price he’s giving TTPers.]
One of my favorite researchers is Barbara Fredrickson, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of her books is Love 2.0, in which she looks at “love from the body’s perspective.” She has been studying how the experience of the emotion of love affects your physiology, including your physical health.You know those small moments of connection? A smile. A hand squeeze. These micro-moments of connection change you for the better in an unbelievable way—not just emotionally, but physically. A single positive feeling between two bodies affects the vagus nerve, which slows your heart and regulates heartbeat. Micro-moments of love are healthy!
--Barbara Fredrickson
We even feel a kind of love in what Fredrickson calls “micro-moments of connection.” The nice conversation we have with the checkout person at the grocery store; the warm greeting of welcome by a new acquaintance at a meeting; even the moment of eye contact with a stranger who holds open a door.
It turns out that these micro moments of connection are actually filled with stuff that is good for us, emotionally, psychologically, and in terms of our overall health… like a good meal is filled with nutrients.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET TOO CLOSE TO A 6,000 POUND ELEPHANT SEAL
The Antarctic island of South Georgia is one of the most extraordinary places on earth. Square miles of king penguin rookeries, thousands of fur seals, hundreds of gigantic elephant seals amidst a backdrop of massive glaciers and snow-capped mountains.
All of the animals here have no fear of you whatever and ignore your presence – except if you make the mistake of getting too close to a bull elephant seal for his comfort. It’s a mistake I made as you can see. Luckily, with several tons of blubber to carry, this fellow can’t move as fast as me, so I hightailed it quickly. That satisfied him, and all was soon back to placidly normal again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #62 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO MORE TEFLON?
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – EVEREST NORTH FACE
My first Everest expedition was in October, 1987. I took this photo climbing above the Rongbuk Monastery. The enormous North Face of Mount Everest is entirely in Tibet. The summit at 8,848 meters/29,029 feet is in the jet stream with the plume flowing left along the Northeast Ridge, the climbing route of Mallory and Irvine in 1924.
On the back side of the ridge is the Kangshung Face, also in Tibet. On the right side is the West Ridge, the border between Tibet and Nepal. At the right time of year, the setting sun turns the whole North Face bright pink. At any time of year on a clear day like this, you are witnessing one of the most magnificent sights our planet has to offer. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #105 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/15/22
France’s equivalent to our Fourth of July is Bastille Day, which launched their Revolution on July 14, 1789. As we celebrate with fireworks, so do they – with the biggest in Paris at the Eiffel Tower.
Here’s what they looked like last night (7/14) – and most extraordinarily, the French shared their moment with another nation, lighting up The Eiffel with the blue and yellow colors of the flag of Ukraine.
Let’s stay in Europe for the moment. What the greenie Dutch government is doing to its farmers is depraved and deranged. This is not going to happen. The Dutch farmers will make it by ridding their land of greenie fascism.
So – when do we get to rid our land of greenie fascism? Let’s find out.
SKYE’S LINKS 07/14/22
This explains a lot. 'Crats versus the Constitution. One reason Jack calls Dems AINOs – Americans In Name Only.
U.S. Constitution ‘Racist’ and ‘Sexist,’ Most Democrats Believe
This explains a lot too. Xiden team very short of business experience:
No wonder then. Inflation still getting worse and doing so more rapidly. Using the 1980 calculation method, it is around 16% year over year, which suggest that this is the worst inflation since the War Between The States: