Sept. 26, 2013 Volume XXIV No. 39
North Coast Journal Inc.
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Cartoon by joel mielke
The North Coast Journal is a weekly newspaper serving Humboldt County. Circulation: 21,000 copies distributed FREE at more than 350 locations. Mail subscriptions: $39 / 52 issues. Single back issues mailed / $2.50. Entire contents of the North Coast Journal are copyrighted. No article may be reprinted without publisher’s written permission. Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.
Smile
Editor: Barry Evans’ essay “Happiness? Forget it” in the Sept. 12 Journal cites “evolutionary philosophy” as saying that “our genes don’t give a rat’s backside whether we’re happy or not.” True enough, if our worldview has taken up permanent residence somewhere in the region of the amygdala, a place where kill-or-be-killed, “run away, run away” bells are ringing regularly. But our brains are more than just repositories of the results of countless wellpracticed fight or flight reactions to the world in which we’ve lived for millennia. From brain stem (ancient) to prefrontal cortex (relatively recent), the human brain is a yet evolving and wondrous phenomenon of nature. Old processes ensuring survival are still very much at work within us, yes. However, our complex cortical tissue, built upon the many histories derived from simple reptilian awareness, is a living laboratory where we are offered vast and unknown potentialities of experience. Certainly, there is no guarantee that our species will survive its foolish and primitive behaviors (wars, etc.). Deservedly, we may disappear into extinction. Nonetheless, the very existence of the human brain is an astonishing improbability. That a three pound sack of chemical soup and neuronal sparking can conceive the very idea of “happiness” is itself a profound cause for much jubilation! From moment to moment, within every individual human being, ever-deepening gladness and gratitude are ours for the cortical choosing. Only when individuals so choose, may the species at large, perhaps, discover that happiness, however fleeting, is actually real. Jere Bob Bowden, Ferndale
6 North Coast Journal • Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013 • northcoastjournal.com
Corrections
Last week’s cover story, “Water’s for Fighting,” contained an error. Water claims for Trinity and Sacramento river waters exceed the available water seven and five times, respectively. ●
Our Sept. 12 cover story, “Main and Loleta,” incorrectly identified the ownership of certain parcels, inadvertently omitting some owners who have partnered with the van der Zee family. It also misspelled the name of one trust. According to the Humboldt County Assessor’s records: The parcel behind the green hedge is co-owned by the Zeedervan Family Limited Partnership trust (50 percent), Sean Wirth (25 percent) and his wife, Cynthia Garcia Wirth (25 percent); the parcel on which Blue Coach Antiques sits is co-owned by the Wirths (64.3 percent) and Peter van der Zee (35.7 percent); the parcel upon which the bakery, meat market and market sit is co-owned by Kathryn J. Kennedy (62 percent) and Peter van der Zee (38 percent). ●
The Way Summer Turned She starts slowly, Her hands, circling gestures, hinting to far off places: Familiar, In the way that long gone memories suddenly reappear, New and old, As the eyes of a newborn might tell. Her story moves, Along the lines of his sweaty brow: Furrows of dusty habits, streaked and stale. And his face: a worn vista of hope, A shell of the dances they once rehearsed. She conjures over sagging eyes, Rising to bright skies: That one window they have left, Where thirst and promise mingle On that one day the afternoon light hangs, Suddenly, still and unmoving. Their separation: a restless wait, But marked with patience, As he turns, fetching verses from a box of years, Stepping on the one plank, long gone warped and dry, Creaking, and sounding the first note Of a long song they will sing once again. — Sam A. Flanagan