RonPrice

RonPrice
2012-12-29 18:05:33 (UTC)

Annual Email for 2012-2013

Preamble:

Part 1:

This is the third and final edition of my annual email for 2012-2013. I updated this third edition for the final time in late February 2014, nearly a year ago as I make these final notes to this annual email for 2012-2013. I will not be doing any more updating of this annual letter in the weeks and months ahead. I was 70 back in July 2014 and all future annual emails will be written as I go through my 70s from 2014 to 2024.

For decades, at least since my 20s, I have tried not to celebrate my birthday since the part of the sub-culture of Canada I grew-up in was not into celebrating birthdays after one's childhood and adolescence. In my late 20s, though, I moved into what I have come to call "a birthday culture." When in Rome, it is often said, you can do what the Romans do. I subscribe to this position, at least to some extent.

In addition, since becoming an internet user in the early 1990s, and an active internet user by the late 1990s and, in the 2000s, receiving literally 100s of 'happy-birthday-wishes from all over cyberspace, it has become impossible not to at least give my lip-service to this cultural custom of wishing people 'happy birthday.' And so it is that to those whom I have encouraged to come to this annual email and those who have taken-up my encouragement and are now reading these words I say: "thanks for your birthday wishes." This saves me from saying it again and again all over cyberspace.

Part 1.1:

As I say above I will not be up-dating this particular annual email for 2012-2013 again at this site. Readers will also not be able to access this particular annual email, this update of my family and friends, at any other site, as they once were able to do. I do not update the details in relation to family and friends, the significant others as they say in psychology, at my annual email/letter for the year 2013, an email also found at this site, this diary.

I do update the major changes in my affinal family's inner-circle in my annual letters for each of 2014 and 2015 which are also found at this site. There will be much to update as the years 2014 and 2015 continue in the months ahead. This edition was once accessible at two other websites, but that is no longer the case. Readers can now only access an updated version of this annual email for 2012-13 in my annual email for 2014 and, as I say above, my annual letter for 2015, also found at this site.

Part 1.2:

Of course, if readers want to KIT, keep-in-touch, as they say, they can access my writing at any one of 100s of internet sites. Readers here are also free to write to me at many other locations in cyberspace as well as my email address: [email protected] ...Readers can also Google my name: RonPrice, or Google my name followed by the word 'forums' or 'blogs.' Various other words typed into the search engines of readers, following my name, will result in accessing literally 100s of pages of my writing. Words like: philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, media studies, popular culture, inter alia.

Typing the following: RonPrice forums, Ron Price blogs, or Ron Price followed by many other words and phrases will enable readers to gain access to more of my writing for those with the interest. I leave these options with you, dear readers.
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Part A: Introduction

Section 1:

This is the third and final edition of my 2012-2013 annual email updated in late February 2014 with the first day of spring or autumn just 3 weeks away. Generally Australians use the first of the month and not the 21st, when talking about seasonal changes. After living in Australia now for more than 40 years, I use some of Australia's cultural vocabulary, having become aussified/ossified, as I often say. So it is that I tend to see the beginning of autumn in Australia as an event that occurs on 1/3/'14, and the beginning of spring Downunder as an event occurs on 1/9/'14.

But, whatever date one uses for the beginning of summer, autumn, spring or winter Downunder: (i) Tasmanian summers are nothing like the hot ones I experienced for more than 25 years on mainland Australia or, indeed, the summers I experienced for another 25 year period in southern Ontario before leaving what was called the Golden Horseshoe back in 1967 at the age of 23 for Baffin Island, and leaving it again in 1971 for Australia at the age of 27 with my first wife; and (ii) Tasmanian winters are more like Canadian autumns, at least the ones I became familiar with from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Here on the north-central coast of this island state, the temperature rarely goes above 25 degrees in the summer months, and rarely below zero celsius in winter. The manager of the local swimming pool said that we did not have any days over 25 in the summer of 2012-2013, but other locals said we had between 5 and 10 days over 25. The weather is always a hot topic of conversation as it gives us all something to talk about without causing conflict. We all need plenty of oils to serve us and provide our social life as human beings with as much pleasure and meaning as possible.

Some locals call this coastal area, where I have lived now for 14 years, the Tasmanian French Riviera---or even the Australian French Riviera. My second wife and I began to live on this Australian French Riviera in Australia's oldest town, George Town Tasmania in September 1999; it was our third period of years together in this beautiful island state beginning as far back as 1974. Those 3 periods were: 1974, 1979 to 1982, and 1999 to the present.

There are two older towns in Australia, Hobart and Sydney, but they have become cities; and so it is that those wanting to attract the tourist dollar to this little place of 5000 people call George Town "the oldest town in Australia." I took an early retirement from the teaching profession in July 1999 at the age of 55, after a 50 year student-working life: 1949-1999.

Retirement has been, for me, an enriching experience, especially after I also gave-up all PT and casual-volunteer teaching by 2005. This annual email tells a little about these last few years away from paid employment as well as away from the demands of involvement in most aspects of the wider community. Of course, problems in life don't magically go away with age; indeed, for millions they increase.

Section 2:

Having some 60 to 80 hours a week free to do something else with my life beside a job and attendance at endless meetings, the nose-to-the-grindstone stuff of a job-life with its pleasures and pains, its responsibilities and its rewards, has been a delight.

Having raised three children, and now having an empty nest, I have freed myself from the dozens of other hours devoted to the duties and responsibilities of family life. My involvement in a number of volunteer activities has also been delimited, freeing me to write and edit, poetize and publish, as well as engage in online blogging and publishing.

These retirement years have not been without their tests and difficulties, as I intimate above. Problems are always a part of life's inevitable realities to some extent, it seems. Health, money, getting on with family members, children and grandchildren, friends and associations of various kinds: all this tends to keep the pot boiling to varying extents---to use one of many possible metaphors for describing one's life.

My first wife & I arrived in Australia from Canada on 12 July 1971 to primary school teaching jobs with the South Australian Education Department. We had been given air-tickets to bring us to Australia from Canada. We both taught in primary schools in Whyalla South Australia and, by 27 February 1972, 42 years ago, we were enjoying our first summer in Australia and settling into our home in Whyalla West after 9 months of our lives in Australia. By February the following year, 1973, there were some 30 to 40 Baha'is living in this outpost of civilization some 3 hours by car from Adelaide, South Australia's capital. By 1973, too, Judy and I had moved to Gawler in the Barossa Valley and we both had teaching jobs outside Adelaide.

By 1973 I had obtained my second high school position, & Judy, my first wife, continued teaching primary school. We enjoyed our first summer holiday in Australia from December 1971 to February 1972 by visiting the beautiful city of Sydney. During that first summer holiday in Australia we hitch-hiked together from Whyalla to Sydney in the first week of our summer holidays. Whyalla was-&-is a steel-port-city and we stayed until 15 Decmeber 1972.

In late December 1972 we were on the move again, as I say above, to another part of that state--just outside of Adelaide, as I say above, in Gawler in the Barossa Valley. I taught in South Australia's first open plan high school in 1973 before moving to Tasmania in January 1974. In January 1974 I began to prepare to teach a new set of subjects at what is now the university of Tasmania. I remained at that college for all of 1974 before moving, yet again, to Melbourne.

In 1974, though, instead of having more than 20 hours of student contact as I had had in a high school, I had just 10 to 12 hours of contact in a position entitled: senior tutor in human relations and education studies. In what was then known as a College of Advanced Education, I had the best year of my then embryonic teaching career. My students were all training to be teachers in primary and secondary schools. It was like teaching in heaven on earth by contrast to my former high school position, and I preferred the subject matter that I was responsible for back in 1974 as a teacher of post-secondary school students.

I won't give you chapter and verse of all my jobs and activities in the 40 years since 1974; I leave interested readers to Google my autobiography which is available in cyberspace at my website among other locations, and covers the years from 1975 to 2014, as well as the earlier years of my life in the 20th century.

Section 3:

Tempus fugit, as my mother used to say and, for those whose Latin is non-existent, the translation is: "time flies." It seems to fly faster as one gets older---and I'll be 70 in less than 5 months, in July 2014. In some ways it's hard to believe that I have now lived in Australia for 43 years, some 60% of my life-narrative.

The aging process is an insinuating & seductive one; it seems like just the other day that I was an adolescent (1957-1963) in southern Ontario--more than 50 years ago! Then I was a young adult(1964-1984), the years from 20 to 40 according to one model of human development used by psychologists in relation to the lifespan.

With the marvels of modern medicine I could live until I'm 100. The year would then be 2044! If I do, these annual emails will serve as one form of internet autobiography or memoiristic writing.

Last year's annual email can be found at: http://www.theforumsite.com/users/ro.../journal/80828 ....That annual email for 2011/12 has more information about my family and the significant individuals in my life, as they say in psychology. There is no need for me to repeat all that information in this year's edition of my annual email.

With more than 5000 hits to my 4 online annual emails, I feel that this new form of sending out my annual communication to family and friends, and associations accumulated over a lifetime, is a useful one. As of 3 May 2013 all but one of the online editions of my annual emails could only be accessed at sites which had no counters. From 3/12/'11 to 3/6/'13, a period of some 19 months since my first annual email went online, these annual emails had, as I say above, some 5000 hits.

Any quantifying of the number of hits to my annual emails beyond that number of 5000 became impossible to accurately quantify, and so I stopped doing such quantification two months ago. As I update this annual email in late February 2014, I really have no idea now how many clicks my 4 annual emails have received after those first 19 months when over 5000 hits had come in to my annual emails. I will not be updating this particular annual email again.

Section 4:

From 1967 to 2010 I sent annual letters, and then emails to a small group of friends rarely more than 25. I now write several editions of my annual emails, not only for family and old friends as well as associations accumulated over a lifetime, but also for the many readers I have picked-up during the last dozen or so years, during the reinvention of myself as a writer & author, poet & publisher, editor & researcher, online-journalist & blogger, scholar & literary marketing-man, office-assistant and cleaner.

After what was a 60 year student-paid and paid employment life from 1949 to 2009, I have been able to go onto two old-age pensions at the age of 65. I now enjoy an Australian pension, and a Canadian pension for my work in Canada, from 1961 to 1971, before moving to Australia.

Section 5:

My blogs are another type of communication tool written with various literary and social constituencies in mind in cyberspace. You can read my blogs by Googling: 'Ron Price blogs' ...The 1000s of hits I get at my numerous blogs, totaling dozens now on the world-wide-web, is another story. In my new literary roles, I like to have readers. It's a bit like talking and the need to have listeners, although the desire to be liked and to be popular presents its own problems as most of us are only too aware.

I also have several books and literally hundreds of essays and poems at this link:http://bahai-library.com/author Readers have to type the word "Price" into the search box & then click on the word "Search."

In our world of print & image glut, readers at the above link should not feel obliged to read any of the 50 items & thousands of pages of stuff they will then have access to read! Readers can also access a multitude of my posts at a wide variety of discussion forums in cyberspace by going to this link:

http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&sug...w=1200&bih=597

Part B: My Emails/Letters and My Style

Section B.1

Some argue that a person's letters are a much more reliable guide to the understanding of a human being than are their essays or novels, their poems or social networking posts, or even meeting them in person. I'm not so sure of this, though, for there is: epistolary disguise and image creation, postures which replace relationships & positions that leave out much of a person's reality of life.

Readers get what might be called a social-literary presentation of self. Letters are seen by some analysts as a place where a part of a person's identity emerges, even a type of theatrical attentiveness with its concern for appearances, or a carefully arranged series of signs--among other functions and roles for their writers.

As one 19th century commentator on human relationships once observed: "not everything that a man knows can be disclosed; not everything that can be disclosed is timely, and not every timely utterance is suited to the ears of the hearer." Tact and diplomacy are crucial parts of literary and social life if that life is to be a happy and enjoyable experience. But so, too, are many other characteristics useful like: honesty and humor, calling a spade a spade, as they say in Australia, and being a good listener.

Frank Kermode, a British literary critic who died in 2011 at the age of 91 wrote, just before he died, that we have seen the last age of letter-writing. I'm not so sure of that either. Kermode made this comment before the internet got going with the millions and billions of emails now being sent every day. Even if one accepts that most emails are short and sweet, succinct and brief practical exchanges, there are millions in our burgeoning world of more lengthy written conversations.

Section B.2

The subject of literary communication is interesting and complex, perhaps more complex now in the 21st century, than in previous centuries and ages. And this is to say nothing about verbal/oral communication in its multitude of social contexts, some intimate and familiar, some more formal and occasional, as well as those which take place over the many decades or only over many minutes, in the course of a lifetime.

As some analysts put it, though, a true biography or autobiography, can never be written. All one is going to get are partial truths insofar as a person's character and life are concerned. In the hands of a fine, erudite writer who is well-read those partial truths can be enjoyed by readers in search of an understanding of human existence by means of biography. Biography, of course, is not everybody's choice for understanding. The roads we all take are so very varied.

The letters of the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley reveal an astonishing single-mindedness in his pursuit of his ideals, but they also reveal a ruthlessness and even brutality in disposing of anyone who got in his way and whose views he found disagreeable. He loved humanity in general, but was cruel to many individuals in particular.

To put this another way: he did not suffer fools gladly, as they say today. He burned with a fierce flame and many who got near to that flame & its ardor were scorched. He always placed ideas and ideals before people. Such is the view of F. L. Jones, the editor of two volumes of Shelley's Letters (1964). Go to this link if you'd like to read more about Shelley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley

I mention Shelley here because his style is not mine. Kindness, as another poet once said, is the lodestone of the hearts of men; "it clotheth words with meaning," as that same poet went on to say. I have to deal with a great deal of criticism on the internet since: (a) I write at 100s of sites and 1000s of threads in cyberspace, and (b) I often deal with controversial subjects.

I wrote the following brief essay in response to the various forms of vituperation found in cyberspace and which I have received from time to time. That essay was found in the last edition of this annual email for 2012/13; I'll just post a link to that essay and leave it to readers to click on if they are interested:

http://www.shadowedrealm.com/forum/b...n-prices-blog/

Section B.3

The forms of assistance that people request range across a spectrum of desires at Social Networking Sites(SNS). I am asked to comment on: (i) pictures of individuals, their children &/or friends, (ii) some of their philosophy or religion, their psychological and social enthusiasms, or their interest in food or fashion, (ii) their support for, or criticism of, a cause like: dogs or dolphins, animals or attitudes, seals or sadists, trees or terrorists, cats or kangaroos, the homeless or the homosexual, peace or progress, art or armies, flora or fauna, and/or (iii) a virtually endless list or litany of topics and subjects.

As I say to such people, "go to this link." I also say, or encourage them, to read as much of this very long thread at the following link, as much as their passions and prejudices, proclivities and penchants can stand:

http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/PSYCHOL...tionships.html .....

I make the above suggestion to readers here because this long thread at this link at my website tries to cover every conceivable type of request that comes my way in cyberspace. If readers so desire, we can get into a literary exchange beyond the one-liners which characterize SNS like Facebook. It goes without saying, of course, that those who do not desire any discussion beyond one-liners will simply ignore the above link after reading a few words or, perhaps, a few paragraphs.

It is very difficult to assess another human being from the little window of an annual letter. It is even more difficult to do so in those smaller windows that now proliferate in cyberspace at the several dozen SNS like Facebook and My Space. Ordinarily, we make assessments of people in terms of some set of relatively stable and unified dispositions that we experience over many years; we expect a quiet person who talks little when we are around to be quiet on a regular basis, not just on some days; we might also picture him as a gentle father after watching him in his home.

Since we suppose that personalities are unified in these and other ways, we are almost invariably surprised when it turns out that there are other quite different aspects of someone’s personality than those with which we are familiar. Some literary critics and analysts of biography and autobiography argue that a true overall statement of a person's life, as I say above, cannot be written. For more on this complex aspect of the human personality or character go to this link:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...-discontents/#

Section B.4:

In the last years of those fin de siecle 1990s and our 21st century, a decade and a half, a great series of fast-paced changes in the average person's lifestyle have taken place. Tradition and modernity have come face-to-face with tradition often losing-out. A technological boom has provided society with the opportunity to bridge the gap between people, with a non-geographical space that people have colonized and made their own.

People, at least those who use cyberspace to any extent, now project their identities into and create what some find to be solid and durable communities at the SNS. These are communities that can not be torn apart by distance and time, that provide a sense of social integration and often less prejudice than in real time and space.

Perhaps, as some argue, these SNS are artificial and ephemeral, transient and superficial. For those who see the SNS in this way, they can leave them to the enthusiasts for whom SNS have become their bread-and-butter, so to speak.

Section B.5:

The letters of some writers, like Vladimir Nobokov (1899-1977), Russian novelist, poet and short story writer, "give readers a direct and spontaneous portrait of the man and his life," according to the editors of Nobokov's Selected Letters: 1940-1977. Nobokov was drawn to poetry irresistably according to these editors.

That was certainly true of me by my 50s and, more so, by my 60s. My portrait, though, is found more in my autobiography and my poetry than in my letters, or so it seems to me. I leave it to readers to assess the extent to which there is a direct and spontaneous portrait of my life in my emails and letters---either my recent online emails, or the last 50 years of my emails and letters. Go to this link for my comments on my epistolary life from 1961 to 2011 at:

http://bahai-library.com/letters_mem..._autobiography

Part C: Means of Communicating These Days

Section C.1:

I would now like to make some very brief and final comments to close this third edition of my annual email for 2012-2013. One advantage of writing online, as I pointed out last year, at least at some sites like this one, is the freedom writers have to revise their work. I often revised last year's email. Circumstances in my life and the life of the significant others, as psychologists call the members of one's immediate family, among others who take on a special importance to us in our lifespan, are always changing.

I have placed the links to my annual emails in the autobiography section of my website so that readers who want a broader context for its contents than just the last two years can read the material I have placed in the long autobiography sub-section of my website at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/auto.html And, if they have no desire to read stuff at my internet site or, indeed, anything else I have written in cyberspace, they should feel free to do so. In some ways, this goes without saying.

Section D: Concluding Words

D.1 A GENERAL RESPONSE AND CONCLUSION

I trust your life is a comfortable one even if busy and demanding in its various ways as most people’s lives seem to be these days. If you enjoy a more leisurely lifestyle now in your retirement, as some who read this email do, may such a leisurely pace continue and with it good health and plenty of energy to enjoy what some call the declining and/or reclining years of the evening of life.

If you are still jobbed and raising a family, we wish you well in coping with life's many demands. I get many humorous emails, others with words of wisdom and still others with clever and sometimes amazing photographs. I have written a general response to such emails at: http://www.volconvo.com/forums/gener...unication.html ....FY possible I.

D.2 SOME CHANGES IN IMMEDIATE FAMILY

1.1 My son, Daniel, and his wife, Zuriash, as well as my 2 year old(as of 21/9/'13) grand-daughter, Grace, are now living in Launceston. They moved from George Town, where they had lived for two years after returning from their years in Israel at the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa. They moved into a place only a few houses away from the house I lived in when I first came to Tasmania in January 1974. Back then I had begun, as I point out above, to work at what became the university of Tasmania. I was a senior tutor in human relations and education studies.

Daniel wanted to be closer to his job as a technical writer with Tas-Gas, a retail provider of natural gas in Tasmania. There are also more services in that city of 100,000 than there are in this little town with a population of 5000. There is, too, a Baha'i community of more than 30 people in Launceston with 3 Baha'i communities in nearly towns each with less than a dozen members.

Daniel's part-time job of 3 days a week allows him to play a more active part as a father with his wife Zuriash--for their little daughter Grace. If Daniel had a five day, 40 hour a week job, he would not be able to play the part he now does in helping Zuriash raise their daughter. Launceston is only a half hour drive from George Town and so my wife and I will still be able to play our grand-parent roles, although somewhat less, without 'the tyranny of distance' problem. This expression has often been used in Australia's history in relation to many problems that arise and have arisen due to the distance people are from each other.

1.2 My step-daughter, Vivienne, and her husband Andrew have had no major changes since I wrote in the last edition of this email, this internet post. Vivienne has been working as a nurse at the LGH, the Launceston General Hospital, for more than 25 years. Andrew is still in the IT industry. Raising two children and being a working mother and wife, as Vivienne has been, is no easy task. I should mention, though, that they have just sold their house and have begun the process of downsizing as they head into their late 40s, and as their two teen-agers slowly make the transition to living on their own, a process which looks like it may take several more years, as is often the case with the generation born, say, in and after the 1990s.

1.2.1 Both Kelsey and Tobias, 2 of my 3 step-grandchildren, have had changes in their employment life. Kelsey, now 17, gave-up her first PT job, more than a year ago, serving at a local bakery back in 2012. She is now back at school after enjoying her summer holiday(12/13 to 2/14); she is half-way through her two years at the matriculation college in Launceston, and is beginning to eye her possible university program in: psychology, teaching and/or social work beginning in 14 months, in March 2015.

1.2.2 Tobias, now 19, has two part-time jobs. One of his PT jobs is in a bookstore in Launceston and the other, his main job is in a hotel as an assistant-manager. He is getting lots of real-life experience before settling into some career at a future time. Tobias began a course at the university of Tasmania in the faculty of health sciences and medicine in February 2012, but he gave-it-up in late March 2012. His experience reminded me of my own reaction to university studies in the autumn of 1963 when I, too, went back to work, and gave my studies away, after being enrolled for only several weeks. I found the job I took-on, back in 1963 at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. in Hamilton, far too tedious. So I re-enrolled on 22/11/'63. It was the same day that JFK was assassinated. Indeed, it was a day for me to remember some 50 years ago.

There is always a lot happening in the private and public lives of most people, of which my family members are no exception. If readers want more details they need only ask, and I am happy to send a more detailed email your way.

1.3 Angela, the youngest of my two step-daughters was 43 on 11 December 2013. As I mentioned in the last edition of this annual email, she had a permanent job in Perth Western Australia with Karma Resorts; the job paid so well that she decided to resign from her job in mid-2012 in Tasmania and move to Perth. She and her 3 year old son---in September 2013---George, lived in Swanbourne Western Australia--a seaside suburb of Perth. At the beginning of January 2013 Angela resigned from her Perth job and moved to Melbourne where she had once lived and worked. The job-market is and was better in Melbourne. She is also closer to her family in Tasmania which she now visits from time to time for birthdays and special occasions.

Angela's university studies were at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology(RMIT) in Melbourne Victoria back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her field of study was public relations and psychology. She has a fabulous CV and in 2013 was, in some ways, over-qualified for many jobs. She finally got a job in July 2013 after a seven month running of the interview gauntlet, and doing a variety of part-time jobs in the Melbourne area. She worked as the communications manager of SuperSprint, a leading Australian sporting event management company that owned and ran many sporting events in Australia.

In December 2013 she got an even better job, and one which was more suited not only to her talents but also to her role as a working mother. She does not have to work late in the afternoon and at weekends as she did in her last job, and she can give her time to the responsibilities of raising her son on her own--not an easy task. This latest job which she began in early December 2013 is: the head of fundraising, sponsorship and events with an organization known as Child Wise at, FYI: http://www.childwise.net/page/7/purpose.

In the last 3 years Angela has been finding out about the incessant demands of raising a child and balancing those demands with being a working-mother. Angela's task is even more demanding, in some ways, than Vivienne's since the role of being a single working mother is very taxing and stress-creating. Comparisons though, it is often said, are odious. Both my step-daughters have very demanding lives, each in their own ways and they need all the persistence, patience and concern for others that their mother has demonstrated in our 40 years together.

Angela's many jobs over the years often remind me of my own career trajectory with some 5000 job applications in the years from 1955 to 2005. I found the job world a definite running of that proverbial gauntlet, and I am more than happy to have that part of my life well behind me.

D.4 CHANGES FOR CHRIS AND I

1. A major change has taken place in my life due to a new medication for my bipolar disorder(BPD). I take a cocktail of seroquel and effexor and have taken it now for the last 22 months. The main effect, among others, is that for the first 10 months I usually went to bed about 8 p.m., and got up between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. This relatively early-to-bed and early-to-rise pattern had not been part of my life since high school in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the last year, though, I have been taking my meds later in the evening, staying up until midnight, and getting up between 9 and 10 a.m.

Seroquel is what is referred to as an atypical antipsychotic approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder; I take this along with the SSRI, effexor, which is given to treat major depressive disorder. Effexor is, as I say, an SSRI, an anti-depressant medication which I have now taken for several years. Seroquel has only been on the market since 2004. You can read a more longitudinal account of my BPD at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/Bipolar.html, FY possible I.

My life-narrative with BPD is also a story you can Google, if you wish. I have placed this account in cyberspace partly to play a personal role in the de-stigmatization of mental illness in general and bipolar disorder in particular.

2. My wife, Chris, has finally received a diagnosis for the several health problems she has had in recent years. Her rheumatologist thinks she has fibromyalgia, a medical disorder which you can also read about at Wikipedia, again, if you are interested. Needless to say, her package of medical problems and their associated symptoms does not make her life easy. In more recent months, though, she has worked-out her thyroid medication, thyroxin, levels more satisfactorily than she had in the last two years. The result is that she now has a much better daily mood, physical health, and relative freedom from many of her former symptoms. But, alas and alack her infirmities are still 'a work-in-progress', as they say.

3. I'll keep in mind, though, what my mother used to say , when I was a child back in the 1950s, namely: "when you get old, boy, one of the main subjects of conversation is your ailments." I shall say no more, then, on this subject here! Readers who want to know more of my experience of bipolar disorder over 7 decades can also go to this link: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/Bipolar.html at my website. Those who know Chris well usually phone her or send her emails to find out how her health is progressing.

4. Most people never talk about the details of their finances except, when they are inclined, to a small circle of family and friends. Like peoples' sex-lives, their finances are outside the conventions of normal personal discourse, for the most part, both in cyberspace and real space. I'll say several things here without giving too much away---at least from my point of view---if not from the point of view of all my readers.

From my point of view my remarks are what you might call a moderate confessionalism, if indeed, the word 'confession' can even be applied to these revelations about my finances. Of course, what is moderate and appropriate to one person is often seen as extreme or inappropriate to another. As one aphorism I have often used goes: "stories about people are seldom good, a silent tongue is safest." And another: "fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

4.1 In the years 1999 to 2005, I retired after more than 4 decades of paid employment: FT, PT. and casual. With the money from my superannuation my wife and I fully-paid-for the 3 bedroom house we bought in Tasmania. We still live in this house and its value has gone from $100 thousand to $250-400 thousand(circa) depending, as they say, on whether it is a sellers' or a buyers' market. Back in 1999 we put the rest of my 'super', some $30,000, in the bank and investments.

Now, some 14 years later, my wife and I have an annual income from our pensions and investments of about $30,000. We have no debt and still have some $8,000 remaining from our reverse mortgage. We took out a small reverse mortgage of $20,000 and so, barring some unforeseen calamity, we should be financially comfortable for as far as the eye can see in this changeful life into the last years of our late adulthood and old age(80 ), if we last that long.

4.2 On our current annual income of some $30,000 with enough money to draw on for: (a) a little travel and tourism, (b) the daily exigencies and (c) even, to some extent at least, for the kind of retail therapy on which our consumer society is built and in which Chris likes to indulge on occasion, we should be able to 'go the distance' in this life with its slings and arrows.

I could say more, but this is a succinct summary. Readers do not need to send me information about: (i) internet-money-making opportunities, (ii) the problems of a reverse mortgage, or (iii) any other general financial advice. Chris handles our finances now as she has done for the 4 decades of our married life.

I am also happy not to receive any advice in relation to my health and diet, exercise and how to lose weight. As I head for the age of 70, I have had enough advice in the last 7 decades to sink a ship, as they say. Chris and I are financially comfortable. I have no desire to spend my time earning extra money after some 50 years(1955 to 2005) of trying. I also have access to 100s of pages of advice on health and healing, food and diet, at my fingertips in cyberspace, advice and information by the bucket-full!

4.3 I provide as much information as I am comfortable about revealing insofar as my sex-life is concerned over the lifespan at the following link. For the voyeuristic and the prurient, as well as for the curious and the simply interested who come to this my annual email, they can now enjoy a reward!

I have written several pages of a prose-poetic story of my sex-life; readers who have read this far in my annual email should be rewarded. That reward, if reward it is, is located at this sub-section of my website: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/PSYCHOL...tionships.html I hope readers enjoy these personal and more general comments on this far-too-overemphasized aspect of contemporary culture.

D.4 ANNUAL EMAILS AND WELL-WISHING

With four annual emails in cyberspace since the first went online on 3/12/'11, I have now received several lengthy replies. I have also received many short and medium-length responses to these three annual missives in cyberspace. Fewer and fewer people are inclined to write at length and in detail these days. I am happy to know that my 3 annual emails have now received some 5000 clicks or hits. This was by 3/6/'13 and after that date I have kept no track of how many clicks my annual emails have received.

If the vast majority of the people who make these hits have no desire to respond in writing that is fine. I get a plethora of short emails and dozens of responses at the many sites at which I am registered in cyberspace.

I also have to deal with more than 200 emails every day from the vast network of sites at which I have published my writing. Most of the 'friends' I have across the internet do not write to me frequently. If they did I would spend far too much time in answering emails and not writing poetry and prose which have been engaging me during these years of my retirement from paid employment.

Peoples' disinclination to write lengthy emails/letters is partly due to the popular use of: (i) SNS and other kinds of internet sites, and (ii) text-ing and telephoning. The general hussle-and-bussle of life and society 24/7, as they say these days, also contributes to this reality. We all have our own likes and dislikes, tastes and tendencies, as well as personal activity preferences when it comes to what we do with our time and the means and extent to which we want to communicate.

Whatever you do with your time, then, and however you want to communicate, indeed, if you want to communicate at all, may your activities give you pleasure and meaning. Chris and I trust your world is a harmonious one and that it will remain that way for many years to come. I will not be updating my annual email for 2013-2014 with details about my family. That kind of update will continue to be done in the annual email for 2014-2015. Readers who want to respond, to KIT, to keep-in-touch as the acronym says, can do so in several ways.

Note/PS:

I want to reiterate that I will not be up-dating this annual email again; my emails at some other sites can not be accessed. Readers need to go to my annual email for 2014-2015 if they want to KIT, or just want to read my next annual email about my family. Readers can also Google my name: RonPrice, RonPrice forums, Ron Price blogs to access more of my writing.
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I will now add two items to complete this annual email.
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ITEM NUMBER ONE:

The first item I want to add concerns The George Town Baha'i Group(GTBG) which now has four members: 4 adults. Chris is the chairperson and treasurer. I am the secretary and publicity officer. Daniel, his wife Zuriash, and his daughter Grace moved into the Launceston Baha'i community more than a year ago now, back in November 2012. The GTBG has my wife and I, and another retired couple who arrived from Queensland back in February 2013.

In addition to the celebration of Baha'i Feasts and Holy Days by the GTBG, as well as home visits and devotional meetings, firesides and deepenings, the GTBG has an advertised program entitled Soul Food for the public on the third Saturday of each month from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sometimes the discussion goes on into the early evening, but it is usually over by 8 or 9 at the latest. Soul Food consists of readings and discussion of literature from secular and sacred sources. We advertise our program in several places in the print and electronic media. The GTBG is now in its 24th year.

The Founder of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah, forbid the aggressive proselytism through which many religious messages have been widely promulgated. There were two Baha'is in 1990 when the GTBG was first formed. The GTBG is a registered group and it has 8 online sites in Tasmania and on the mainland for those wanting to know more about either the group or the Baha'i Faith as it operates at the local level in this oldest town in Australia. These sites have received several thousand hits in the six years they have been accessible in cyberspace.

ITEM NUMBER TWO:

The second item here is intended to underline a MO, a modus operandi to borrow a who-dun-it term, for others who want to communicate with me. I now possess a cell phone for use in communicating with only 4 people, the 4 people in my family with whom I have a great deal of interaction in my private life, my wife and son, and his wife and daughter, but I use this phone as little as possible.

I also use our landline/cordless phone as little as possible after a lifetime, a half a century(1950-2000-circa) of extensive telephone usage. My wife has both a cell phone and a mobile phone. She utilizes both to send texts and engage with the wider-world probably as much as, or more than, she ever did before all the new telephone technology came on board in the last decade or so.

Chris answers virtually all incoming calls and has done so for the last 2 or 3 years. People who want to talk to me: (i) go through my wife, (ii) leave messages on our answering machine if she is not home, or (iii) just drop-in. Generally, those who want to talk to me on the phone: (a) want to sell me something, or (b) are in some situation of personal need. But nearly all those in this latter category now send me emails, and I encourage all those who are in need, and who feel I can be of some help, to go to my website at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/auto.html ...or to send me an email at: [email protected]

I have no intention, at the moment, of utilizing iPhones, iPods or iPads, texting or responding to the myriad messages that people write at Facebook or, for the most part, at the multitude of internet sites to which I belong. If I did engage in being that responsive to others through the new internet and communication technology, I would find myself doing nothing else, and there is more to life than writing in cyberspace or anywhere else for that matter.

My son and step-daughters all have iphones and this piece of technology has many advantages. One day I may get into iphones, but not yet. We all can't send and receive messages using all the new and old forms of communicating. Nor can we all visit everyone we know on a regular basis, especially if we know a great many people.

Selectivity has always been an important part of my life, and even more now in our planetizing, integrating, inter-dependent world is opening-up our private space to others. Of course, we each have our own MO for dealing with the wider-world. Some insulate themselves and protect their privacy extensively, while others have what you might call a loose and permeable set of personal barriers to the public world. To each their own in our 21st century.

Selectivity and limiting the extent of my social interaction, in the Baha'i community, among my extended family and in the wider community---have become important to me especially: (a)on my new medications for bi-polar I disorder in the last five years and (b) after I have taken part in my several local and social, family and community activities. Privacy is important to me as a writer, as a person who wants to limit his public interaction as much as possible.

ITEM NUMBER 2.2:

The purpose of this second item in this annual email for 2012/13 is intended, then, to underline how others can respond to this internet post, should they wish. Confidentiality is maintained since I have no idea who reads this annual email. Of course, I do know who replies to this somewhat long annual message, but not how much they read.

This third edition of my 2012-2013 annual email was last updated on 30/1/'14 with the summer season in Australia one month gone. I will not be updating this email again, as I say above. Readers at this site and others who come across this post elsewhere, can do any 1 of the following 10 things:

(a) post a message on my website by going to the comments section, that is, by clicking on the Leave A Comment box at the bottom of most of the many sections and sub-sections of my website; the URL for my website is:http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/index.html ;
(b) post a message right here in this reply section at ConceptArt.org, if they wish. To do this they must first register at this site;
(c) post a message at any one of the 100s of internet sites at which I post and receive messages from others. Just google the words 'RonPrice forums' to find/obtain a wide selection of sites for my posts at some of these other internet sites;
(d) send me an email at: [email protected];
(e) send me a snailmail to: 6 Reece Street, Pipe Clay Bay, South George Town, George Town, Tasmania, 7253, Australia;
(f) send me a snailmail card for my birthday(23/7/'12) or an electronic card for any one of a number of events which I celebrate or which readers celebrate; for example: Naw-Ruz, Ayyam-i-Ha, and Ridvan, Christmas and New Year, The Chinese New Year or any one of a number of Pagan festivals that Wicca/animist enthusiasts celebrate;
(g) reply at any time during the year other than now in any of the ways suggested here;
(h) send a message of good wishes, greetings, or some other message with some other purpose---to me via my wife, son, or some 'significant other' in my life as many now do;
(i) not reply at all---as is your option, preference, wish or desire; or
(j) simply ignore this thread, go back to another part of my website, another part of the internet, or go back into the real world of real space and time and get on with your life.
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The above item was edited for the last time on 27/2/'14. At that time, I had been married for 47 years, a teacher for 32, a student for 18, a writer and editor for 15, and a Baha'i for 55 years.




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