20 • October 2015 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC. WORDPLAY: I CHARIBACHODA Art & Article by Marcia Singer • lovearts@att.net SANTA ROSA, [ee char-ee-bah-cho-da]


CA. ~ This


month’s vocab meditation ex- plores the tribal ways you and I re- late to one another. Do I experience you as belonging to my personal tribe? Do you include or exclude me? Might we ever become a “family of man”–as the so-titled famous photography book portrays? Or join John Lennon in his vision of being a union of global peo- ples, as he sings his anthem, “Imagine?”


The inhabitants of the little Japanese island of Okinawa have something to teach us. Journalist Dan Buettner stud-


ies our earth’s “Blue Zones” where people live the longest and healthiest. He found that the centenarian Okinawans have especially high quality,


life-long


social connec- tions. They prac- tice the tradition of i charibachoda, the idea that ev- erybody is your brother or sister. Once you meet, you’re part of


one big family –monchu. This inspires you to do no harm – olo—to each other, to treat each other as friends. Buettner explains that these


supportive social groups hap- pen not only in their close- knit natural families, but form


around shared activities. Each group –called a moai (moe-eye) is a kind of extended family group. Beuttner has


in-


troduced this healthy social “tribe” con- cept to some American


cit-


ies with aging populations. An elderly cou- ple in Redondo Beach formed a moai bond around walking the beaches four days a week. That sup- port then extended to show- ing up for one another beyond their walks together.


What strong communities -moais—do you belong to? School? Workplace? Faith or


‘cause’ based? Mine are often through my spiritual, healing, creative and educational roles. I still feel a part of my cre- ative and spiri- tual circles L.A, and my former se- nior Improv group, many of whom still hang out to- gether. A bond- ing


group also


formed around a reminiscing class for older adults I started through the SRJC at my former MH community, continuing long after I moved. When I got the


keepsake book from my 50th class reunion, I instantly felt a part of that tribe even though I left Kansas in 1968! Having been a gypsy who’s


moved often, I really appre- ciate traditions like the Oki- nawans embody –or an order of nuns in Houston. When my best friend called to tell me that her elder friend Sister Doloret- ta had passed away, we count- ed two moais: Sister’s special circle of caregiver friends, and her larger order of nuns. There’s i charibachoda at work there too.


While science tells us that social interaction is crucial to


... continued on page 22 A HOPS Story


... continued from page 16


why we do not see hops rather than vineyards spread all over the County. According to Lou, even though the business thrived pre- World War II, it died out soon after the end of the War because of soil contaminated caused by a fungus that destroyed half the hops crop acreage. With infected soil and new economic times, the hops grow- ing business migrated to Wash- ington State, more precisely, the Yakima Valley.


It took twenty years to build their hops business, which fl our- ishes today. The Yakima Valley has four great rivers and hops need lots of water. This reality could potentially be a problem for expanding hops growing in our drought-ridden state. Hops are still grown here and in other parts of California such as near Sacramento where Dauen- hauser got his start, but the bulk of the hops growing continues to be in the Pacifi c Northwest. With the agricultural technol- ogy changes in the last 60 plus years, we may see a resurgence of hops production in our area. Hops are still a profi table crop and the microbrewery business is in full swing here and through- out the US.


From all of us who enjoy beer, cheers to all hop growers like Florian and Lou of yesteryear and now!!! Thank you!!!


Water is so good when it’s mixed with barley, hops, and yeast!


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