Judith Durham (lead singer of the Seekers) has died

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Saturday August 06, 2022 · 11:07 AM PDT

2022/08/06 · 11:07

Judith Durham lead singer of the Seekers circa 1963

Judith Durham died yesterday at the age of 79. She was born in Melbourne, Australia and passed away from bronchiectasis, a long-standing chronic lung disease, at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.

To me, her diminutive figure always seemed incongruous with her ability to broadcast her voice in a myriad of dynamic and emotive ways. In my mind’s eye, I always picture her with her hands on her hips in a bright red dress belting out powerful vocals that often bring a tear to my eye. she was a founding member of the Seekers from 1963-1968 and then went on to a long and successful solo career.

There are probably tens of thousands of baby boomers who have used the Seekers song: I’ll never find another you- at their funerals.

I will forever have a sense of mahalo for her wonderful music and contribution to society — Judith, I’ll never find another you. Aloha

Can we talk? Probably not - but we can always try!

tharu1

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Monday August 23, 2021 · 8:08 PM PDT

2021/08/23 · 20:08

There are thousands of languages and cultures different from your own to learn about and embrace - Being able to talk builds a rainbow like bridge between disparate peoples. Fleeting - ephemeral - magical

About half of living humans are at least bilingual. About 20% of Americans are and most of those are bilingual because their mother tongue is different than English. Native English speaking Americans seem to avoid learning how to talk with their fellow humans.

Most estimates say that there are about 7,000 living languages in the world today. Sadly, that is a lot fewer than there were a generation ago — and the trend continues downward. However, this post is more about how much there is still left to learn in this finite world we briefly inhabit than it is to dismay over things we have little ability to fix/control. Today, we have so many more opportunities to communicate directly with people/cultures that were unfathomable even 20 years ago.

I am talking about learning new languages and learning about cultures different from your own. I am a polyglot!

Ever since Covid confined many of us to our own homes (day in and day out) I took time to reflect on what I always wanted to learn. I’m nearing retirement after a long career in pelagic fisheries

Me, trying to talk to an oceanic white tip shark in the central Pacific Ocean

and working with people from many different language and cultural backgrounds. I now have a rekindled passion towards learning new things about cultures that were previously unreachable when I was younger.

US Peace Corps Bardiya Nepal circa 1988- me with my jivan sathi

A lifetime ago..., I joined the US Peace Corps and served in Nepal. I also met the love of my life there and we have been together ever since. I learned the Nepali language and embraced the culture while living there. My village was also about a 5 minute walk from the Indian border — and ever since then, I always wanted to learn Hindi.

Life happened in between and I spent about 30 years researching fish in the Pacific Ocean, raising a family, coaching soccer- the usual, and did not even try to learn Hindi or any new language (except dabbling in Hawaiian from time to time)— then-

Covid — confined me to my house and I finally embarked on an adventure to learn Hindi in earnest. I found myriad free resources available to do so. Today, you can access tutorials and guidance that would have cost thousands of dollars to obtain just a few years ago.

This is a golden time for polyglots!

This amazing time of free access to learning material has led me to study Hindi, Urdu, and now I am starting a new project to learn Persian (Farsi).

We live in a huge world full of wonder and opportunity, making the effort to talk with one another is paramount to the future of mankind. No matter how many languages you learn, you will only be scratching the surface of what you could learn to talk to each other — For me, this is all the more reason to try!

Below is a plot of my personal language learning journey and reflects how hard it will always be to able to talk to each other.

November 13, 1982 - the day boxing and all blood sport died for me.

tharu1

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Monday March 29, 2021 · 6:08 PM PDT

2021/03/29 · 18:08

Ray Mancini missing a hook and Duk Koo Kim trying to land a body blow. How- I wish the rest of the fight was only missed blows.

The day I stopped watching boxing and all blood sports…Forever

I once cheered on a brave man’s death. My guilt has no bounds for what this crazy world has deemed appropriate as sport. The fact that I once thought that these injurious spectacles of human determination — presented as gladiator sports — were appropriate — to me, brings me a huge sense of shame.

I was born (1963) and raised as a huge boxing fan — and Ray Mancini was an icon of everything that I believed in — duty, family, religion, -we were about the same age and shared so much in common. So, this championship fight in 1982 was something that I could not miss. And, what a fight it was — two spectacular athletes giving their all to succeed.

It was the pinnacle of boxing skills and determination. I vividly remember when Duk Koo Kim finally went down and how hard I cheered for Ray.

Yet, it all ended up in so much tragedy for both boxers and their families. One man died and the other had to live with the fact that all his hard work and determination ended up killing another human being. Being raised Catholic, I can only start to imagine the guilt that Ray felt!

Make no mistake- This was the best boxing match I had ever witnessed! Skill, determination, unrelenting blows, two determined opponents, the very best that this “sport” had to offer. Yet, there was no reason for another person to enter a ring and beat another person to death other than for money. I feel a sense of shame and forever guilt since that day.

When the pinnacle of your sport involves killing another human being, something has gone seriously awry in our culture.

I know that there are boxing and MMA fans here who would disagree with me, but yeah — I will never willingly witness another human physically beat someone else. Many of my friends invite me to MMA watch parties and I always decline. I will never again take joy out of witnessing the physical domination of another human being. It is now abhorrent to me and embarrassing that I once revered these type of activities as sports.

The goal in these sports is to either not tap out or to be knocked out. How messed up is that. When someone is knocked out, their brain has been damaged to the point that they can no longer function and to tap out is an acknowledgement that someone else controls their body. Both of these outcomes are incompatible with human decency.

Forever shameful- Tharu1

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