S-C-O-R-E-

I usually use you, dear blog, as a therapist, but today I'm just going to just bounce my ideas off you. This is so typical of the way I do things! After not going to the Sunshine Center for an entire year I have just started to go to the music things and now I have a plan to change the whole Center! Interestingly enough the CEO or the head of the Center is a friend of my sister's. My sister is the mother of STIFFS as you may remember and quite the VIP around St. Pete or WAS a few years ago. So anyway at least I'll have someone to talk to about this, maybe. Oh and another thing that's interesting, he is part Indian American. His first name is J. We know it's really Jay as in victory, don't we.

Anyway, the idea is that we seniors should have an opportunity to give back to the community. SCORE means, Senior Community Out Reach Education. I think it should be put on the Center calendar as an activity for everyone to participate in if they want. It would a chance for us seniors to give something back instead of just being given to or taking. I already know what some will say....all my life I'VE GIVEN GIVEN GIVEN and now that I'm old I can sit back and be taken care of. But see I think that everyone, no matter what age or sex or religion feels better about themselves if they are also giving

Now I realize how hypocritical this sounds coming from a person who isn't doing anything for anyone...right now at least. I was a social worker at one time and even now I'm always on the look out for small opportunities. Our Tampa Bay Sai Center does lots of service with medical camps and dental camps and stuff and I haven't joined in but I've been pretty sick and besides I don't drive so it hasn't been possible.

But as a group of seniors there may be some things we could do. We could be grandparents and connect with an elementary school and arrange for a few of the young kids, to come to the center for tutoring. We could take our 'county singers ' to nursing homes to sing to the patients....if we had a bus to take us. We could help with the 'meals on wheels' program which prepares the food right in our building. We could go to Bay Pines VA and read to wounded warriors. As Christmas gets closer, we could help with the Christmas wrapping for the needy....a program which they did last year too. And there is a need in St. Pete for people to volunteer to inspect nursing homes and assisted living facilities. There is a word for that but I CAN'T EVEN SPELL IT ENOUGH TO ASK GOOGLE. Well anyway, as you can see, I've been spending my valuable meditation time THINKING instead of clearing my mind. I'm afraid all this activity is throwing me right back into the world which means MORE KARMA doesn't it. Well I've been hiding in our ashram for over 30 years now trying to avoid karma. And I guess it's really ME who feels as if I should be giving back now.

It could very well be that this is just another 'one size fits all' idea of mine resulting from being on the high end of the pole. Being a bit 'bi-polar, a lot depends on my mood swings. Remember the idea I had to start a 'Western Sai Center' with western music and study groups made up of topical subjects? Well the western music turned out to be for me to sing to my Swami and probably this grandiose idea is only for me, too. rather than for HUMANITY. I think big.