green glazed porcelain lion with rider lamp, Han Dynasty, ca.100 AD -- from the collection of the author

my TAO BOOK

My TAO Book will be presented to the reader in 10-page segments, each designated as a chronologically successive Part. There will be some blanks in the several parts simply due to the present inability to scan entire pages -- these spaces will hopefully be filled when I find another way to present the material.

It also occurred to me to perhaps include pics from slides that I took, corresponding with some of the entries -- that shall have to wait until the spirit moves me, so feel free to check back every couple weeks, just in case there is more to see.

TAO BOOK - Part III

La Atlántida, Tenerife, 26 March 1978 - New Jersey, 28 June 1981

An Overview

During this interval I continued teaching graduate courses in Physical Anthropology and Palaeontology, and undergraduate courses in Scientific English at the School of Science and the School of Pharmacy (Universidad de La Laguna) for which I wrote, published, and sold to my students two volumes of related texts -- I likewise took courses in specialized areas I was interested in, and actively continued my own research -- organized or participated in several scientific meetings / symposia.

Needless to say I continued going to every art show inauguration on the island -- still made kewl copper enamel designs for silver jewelry, small pre-Columbian style pottery figures and other baked clay items, candles and other handicrafts which I either gave away to friends who liked them or traded for art works of theirs --

I returned to the USA, after over a decade absence, because my Mom was alone; Dad died several years before, (1970, at age 54) my brother and sister had married, and Mother remained in her home in Philadelphia with Chipper, her trusty and lovable Boston Bull Terrier -- I stayed at the family summer home in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey because I was teaching science there at a high school -- Mom had gas heating installed for me to live there year round, and was planning to sell the place in Philly and coming to the shore, which she enjoyed more than the big City of Brotherly Love --

Upon my return to the States I worked at the same industrial laundry in Wildwood Crest where I brought my Spanish students on the several annual Summer Cultural Exchanges -- later taught science at a Jersey shore high school, gave several lectures at other places, and tried to acclimatize myself back to a social system I had lived under more than a decade earlier.

Part of the written text is in Español, which I have translated, as best as I could, into English.

Links open to a new browser screen for convenience

image unavailable	x
image unavailable	x
image unavailable	x
	as I recall, this visit was by some Catalán (Barcelona area, mainland Spain) artists after the inauguration of a show in La Laguna, the university town about 10 minutes from my place -- 4 June 1978 I do not have a clue what they wrote -- it seems to be in Catalán -- sorry about that
image unavailable	x
image unavailable	x
	a European education usually included courses in Latin; I went to a Catholic high school in Philadelphia, and we had 2 years of Latin -- few schools offer that language now, which I think is a shame -- not that I remember much more than amo, amas, amat, but it did help train my brain cells in many various areas -- Horace was studying for a doctorate in biochemistry, specializing in plant derivitives -- 1 October 1979 Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur [Latin] / Birds of a feather flock together / Horatius Quintus Flaccus = a sneaky reference to the renouned Roman poet, Horace, 65-8 BC, otherwise known at the time as Quintus Horatius Flaccus / Primus Octobrum MCMLXXIX [Latin] / 1 October 1979 / Horacio Here is an example of one of the odes of Horace -- The world is bound in the fetters of snow and ice. Heap high the fire to break the cold. Leave all else to the gods; whate'er to-morrow's fate may give, count as pure gain. To-day is thine for love and dance, while thou art young.
image unavailable	x
	This is one of the very few annotations on the other side of the right facing page, therefore there are 11 spaces for documents in this section -- while riding my bicycle in the Crest that winter I noticed a large Victorian house that seemed to be in the process of being prepared for the wrecking ball to make way for so-called progress and a more modern apartment building -- I went in and saw some marvelous fireplace mantels -- I would have taken them all, but decided on only one simply because I did not really have room for the others -- it took me some 10 days to remove the 6 layers of different color paint which had accumulated on it over the years -- the final step was using steel dental picks to get the paint from the delicate/intricate carvings on the front of the solid dark oak mantel and column tops, which could only be seen as blobs previously -- my Mom loved mantel pieces -- I had also done a lot of work on the inside of the house to restore it to its former Arts and Crafts style splendor -- all natural woods abounded. the mantel was my surprise Christmas gift to Mom for allowing me to live at the place with my two Siamese cats, Devi and Shiva. She loved it, of course, and said she would move there next year, 1981, when her house in Philly was sold.
	this is the next part of the previous page -- while doing Part IV I tried making two scans of the page entries that are larger than the scanner platten and the results are OK, so I added this -- other missing pages will eventually appear, and the general page format may also change somewhat -- 31 December 1980 Mary Frances -- my brother's middle daughter, born in 1972 Lyn -- his eldest daughter / child, born in 1970 Mother -- born in 1917 Billy -- my dearest and only brother, who had to write in lemon yellow, which is nearly impossible to see/read -- born in 1941 / the drawing is a SUNKIST LEMON with wheels , license plates, an antenna and windows / Sonny's version of "Ford Has a Better Idea" Better luck in 1981 - happy new year. Billy Chris -- his dearest and only wife, born in 1947 Mandy -- their then youngest child, born nine months before Six weeks later Mom died at age 61, and my sister quickly organized the sale of that house and the one in Philadelphia -- Mom, from her hospital intensive care bed in Philly, told me to keep taking care of Chipper for her -- when I was not home my dear sister took him, and a truck full of things from the house and garage, some of which were mine -- she had the dog assassinated by some vet -- when I was forced to move, I took the mantel with me
image unavailable	x

TAO Book - - Part IV

Questions and comments may be emailed to the author at

back to - - TAObook main

Free counters provided by Andale.

COPYRIGHT © 2004 by La Atlántida Web Design. All rights reserved.