Random Wanderings of the Mind

It has continued to be a cold month. It may be the year that spring forgot. Yesterday's high was only 57 degrees F. which is 15 degrees below normal. The low temp was down near 40 for two mornings in a row. If we hadn't had clouds last night we might have had frost here in southern Minnesota because the dew point was 32. What has made it worse is when spring has shown up we ended up with the tornadoes around here including an F5 in Iowa. No, it isn't the coolest May on record I am sure, but it isn't one I wanted after the seemingly endless winter we had.

Then imagine my sadness last evening when I got to the coffee shop and looked across the street at the flower garden. And all the tulips were gone. The bed was empty. They had been really pretty, too. Well, tonight there are things planted over there that offer the hope for summer. Notice I said hope and not promise. I will not accept any promise made about a summer of 2008. The only way I know spring has come is the orange barrels marking the road construction.

But in truth I have very little to whine about as I have been watching the destruction from tornadoes here in the Midwest, the devastation in Myanmar followed by the insensitive paranoia of the government there, and the destructive power of the earthquake in China. Listening the other evening to a report from there on NPR they were talking about the fact that China has had a general one child per family policy. They pointed out that many of the children killed in the earthquake were their parents' only child. I hadn't even thought about that. As a parent of an only child I stopped just before it got to that place where a parent's mind can't go. Yes I can feel some of the pain, but unless you experience it, it is only a deep pain you can't allow to come to its full fear. Nature is not as benign as we sometimes romanticize it to be. And yes it is true that life really isn't fair.

Forever in Blue Jeans

They are my favorite pants. Blue Jeans. When I first met my future wife she thought I only owned one pair of pants. I actually owned 3 or 4- all of them Levi's Blue Jeans.

Well, according to Slate.com today marks the 135th anniversary of the granting of a patent to Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis for work pants reinforced with metal rivets. At Slate.com the photo group Magnum has a slide show of 17 pictures celebrating jeans. (Note that at least one of the pictures may be considered x-rated.)

Happy birthday blue jeans.

Looking to the Future

People are really working hard on ways around the fuel costs (other than the "official" idea of digging more wells and building more refineries). Here are two videos of inventors with some good-looking prototypes who will still use gas but one of the most abundant around- air. (A Hat Tip to Dwight.)

Bits and Pieces

Let's see what I've found to share:

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women.

Three islanders from Lesbos - home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women - have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

That, by the way, is a question in Trivial Pursuit- what are residents of the island of Lesbos called? Or at least I remember it as one.

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Then with my 1968 history stuff going on this year, it was a coincidence to read the following just this week:

GENEVA (AP) -- Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired - and arguably corrupted - millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died. He was 102.

As Greg pointed out, if it weren't for Hoffman the 60s might have been a lot saner. But I doubt it. On Wikipedia they have this to say about Hoffman and his work with LSD:

Hofmann called LSD "medicine for the soul" and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. "It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis," he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the youth movement of the 1960s and then unfairly demonized by the establishment that the movement opposed. He conceded that LSD can be dangerous in the wrong hands.

This one may get argued for years to come.

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Then for some gentle relaxation without the aid of acid, Trees Bloom in Brooklyn- A Neat Time Lapse of blooming cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden:



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Now, from Mental Floss Blog back in November:

* 1 in every 4 Americans has appeared someway or another on television.
* 1 in every 4 Americans has a higher than normal blood sugar level.
* Almost 1 in every 4 Americans has a tattoo, according to a 2006 study conducted by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
* The Census Bureau predicts that 1 in every 4 Americans will be Hispanic by 2050,

Numbers 1 and 3 apply to me.

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But I wondered what I would find with a Google search like that, so here are some of the trivia I found:

*One in every four New Yorkers' blood high in mercury
*About one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year
*One in four Americans get an annual check-up (Scary)
*1 in 4 American Adults Read No Books in 2006 (Even scarier)

Then one that has since proven to be a false belief...

*1 in 4 Americans Believe Jesus Will Return in 2007

My guess would be that the 1 in 4 now believe it will happen in 2008. I wonder if they are the one who don't read books?

Ouch!

Here we go again.

Thursday night the price of gas was $3.13. Friday evening it was $3.25.

Maybe I'll be looking at a bicycle for more than just riding the Pine Creek Trail soon.

At Random

Okay, nothing new or insightful or profound (which may be situation normal around here) but some things I liked.

• Thanks to Mental Floss, go to Neat-o-Rama for the Ten Most Beautiful Bridges in the World. I've only seen #3 and #1, but would add this picture to my own list,

a bridge across the Guadaquivir in Seville, Spain.

• Another link from Mental Floss, here is an "online store" you have to see. Let it load and leave the sound on.
  

• At List Universe you can find a list of the Top 15 Influential Musicians (rock, etc.). I have to agree with #'s 1 and 2 but I sure would put Bob Dylan higher than #11.

• But then (also from List Universe) don't miss the Top 10 Little Known Influential Musicians. I actually knew of five of them- and had seen #10 (Richie Havens) in a remarkable concert when I was in college.

• And one final entry from List Universe, all for laughs, the Top 25 Monty Python Sketches (with You Tube video to go along with it.) I would move #3 to the top, but it would be close, dead parrots and killer jokes seem to go together.

Hard to Believe... But....

There's never a shortage of weird news. Last week was no exception. These caught my fancy and attention:

BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish."

It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

I guess they will be resuscitated?
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And lest you think that Moses was special...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The biblical Israelites may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant when Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, according to a new study by an Israeli psychology professor.

Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an "altered state of awareness," Shanon hypothesized.

"In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings," Shanon wrote.

"On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all Being ... many identify this power as God."

Actually, this one is less surprising and disturbing than it may first appear. After all, as many of my former-stoner clients would tell me- "Hey, man, it's natural."
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Just like these other chemical compounds that help mere mortals look and play baseball like the gods...

WASHINGTON - A Democratic congressman asked the FBI on Wednesday to drop its investigation of Roger Clemens because the pitching great had suffered enough from the probe into steroid use.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a candidate for New York mayor in 2009, said the FBI is too busy with more important crimes to spend time trying to determine if the ex-Yankees pitcher lied to Congress about taking performance enhancing substances.

"Roger Clemens has been shamed. I think the public record is replete with examples of how he did not likely tell the truth. What is the public benefit of continuing with an FBI investigation?" Weiner said.

Yes, he is right. He also pointed out that Congress has far more important things to deal with than baseball. Like the election cycle. And the Yankees.

Rumblings and Ramblings

Some notes and thoughts for a Friday:

• First, read an excellent book for free.

A few weeks ago author Neil Gaiman had a vote on his website about which of his books should be put on the web for free. The winner was his best book (so far), American Gods. It has won: * Hugo Award for Best SF/Fantasy Novel * Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel * Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel * Nebula Award for Best Novel. It went live yesterday. Here's the link to the book. It will be up for a month. Here's the link to Neil's website. By the way, Neil, a native of England is now a Minnesotan. Which reminds me - I forgot to mention that the Oscars liked Minnesota this year. The Coen Brothers are native and Diablo Cody is an adopted native like Gaiman and me.

• Church Calendar Colliding with St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

Yes, March 17 happens to fall on the Monday of Holy Week this year. Holy Week in Catholic tradition is certainly not a time of revelry. (Or in any other Christian denomination that pays attention to those things.) So, how do you celebrate a Catholic Saint's Holy Day. It could be a tough choice. Some have suggested moving the celebration. (Of St. Pat's Day, not Holy Week.) No chance of that. This is clearly another example of the secularization of a spiritually-based holiday. Good luck o' the Irish on this one.

• NFL to Allow Church Super Bowl Parties

For several years now the NFL has been clear that any "public" showing of the Super Bowl in churches is against the law and breaks copyright. Bars were exceptions, by the way. As if they haven't caused enough problem with taking over Sundays and turning them into another religious ritual. Well, they have given in. Churches will no longer be breaking the law. One of the articles I saw said "In essence, this provides churches the same right as sports bars." Thank goodness we in the church are now equal to the bars.

• Aetna Postpones Sedation Policy Change

What sedation, you ask? Well they were going to stop paying for sedation for colonoscopies. Actually, they are proposing to stop paying for anesthesiologists. Now I am one who gets regular colonoscopies since my mother died of colon cancer at 49 and I am now well past that. I have never had the kind of sedation that takes an anesthesiologist. It has never been really bad with the light sedation used. But I would sure hate to see someone who should get one not do so because of the fear of pain, discomfort, etc. The AP article concluded with this great paragraph:

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States and regular screening could eliminate as many as 60 percent of deaths each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That seems like a really good reason for Aetna to hold off on its policy change.

BTW: Columnist/humorist extraordinaire Dave Barry had a great article about this. And yes, colonoscopies can make you laugh. Link.

• Here is one way to win. Stab the opposition.
  

From the AP:

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Montgomery County authorities say a man stabbed his brother-in-law during an argument over who should get the Democratic nomination for president. What's more, Jose Ortiz, 28, who's charged with felony assault, is a registered Republican.

Uh, that's all folks!

That's What Friends (and Readers) Are For

Greg, who is a friend, blogger at Greg's Random Bits and a reader of this blog has an unenviable position. He seems to be able to give a good, reasoned counter-balance to my posts that keep me on my toes and force me to think things through a little more. He did it twice last week.

First in my pre-Wisconsin primary post I said that Wisconsin has "fierce political independence." Well, in his comment Greg reminded me of one of those things Wisconsinites have been trying to forget for 50 years- Joseph McCarthy. Yes, such fierce independence can be easily misguided. No doubt about that. The McCarthy Era is a stark reminder of that. I see a lot of that era still visible from time to time in many places. The radio personality in Ohio who was downright nasty about Obama yesterday at a McCain rally is just one of the minor examples among some unnamed big ones.

Then after the primary I had a post on hope and the attacks on Obama's language of hope. My premise was that we have to live and build on hope. Greg wrote (in part):

no consideration of hope is complete without the consideration of what false hope provokes--namely, cynicism. And that, unfortunately, is as much a political tool as hope. ... Twenty plus years of such "hope", Democratic and Republican, has emptied language of content. Hope leaves a bad taste in my mouth--something like the ashes from a fire that once burned bright and true.

Nothing like politicians of all parties, not just the Two Big Ones, to so easily give hope a bad name and leave a bad taste. It sure does lead to cynicism. But that is no reason to simply attack or discount hope. Unfortunately we can have a hard time believing anyone who proposes hope if we do that. I guess the question has to be, "Do I believe this promise of hope? Why?" That may be the one question we all have to answer.

Many of us Baby Boomers lost a lot of that hope and idealism about 40 years ago this year in that shattering, world-shifting year 1968. The final blow that began with the JFK assassination in 1963. Some of us are actually getting it back this year thanks to both Obama and Clinton. Thanks to Greg for raising the issue and reminding us that while hope is needed, it can't be blind, but based on some sense of who it is that's offering it. LBJ and the Generals in Vietnam used to feed us hope that the end is in sight and the light is at the end of the tunnel. We have often heard similar ideas in the past few years. Yes, be careful, but don't give up on hope.

And speaking of us Boomers: Then MadPriest left a comment yesterday on my brief post on Larry Norman's death. He commented on Norman's life but was surprised by the lack of attention Norman's death was getting considering his pioneer status. While Norman had his own demons which affected his life, MadPreist added:

Whatever, his passing deserves more acknowledgement than it seems to be getting. I wonder if some of the silence is due to the fact that for many of us aging Jesus hippies this is reminder of lost youth and our mortality that we would prefer not to face up to.

Amen. Lost youth and all, Larry Norman moved many of us into a new place of faith. Yes, Hippie Jesus Freaks, maybe. But we learned that we could begin to express faith in our own ways and musical language. We- and faith- have never been the same.

Catching Up On The News

Well, at least sort of catching up. A couple have tickled my fancy over the past few weeks. Yesterday's story about Huckabee and rock music was interesting. According to the Associated Press:

The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee. In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission.

A former member of the band, Barry Goudreau, has appeared with Huckabee at campaign events, and they have played the song with Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense.

Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that the band and one of its members has endorsed Huckabee's candidacy.

Interesting. Let's see the recording industry go after the candidates who play music at their rallies that may be copyrighted, etc. That wouldn't make for good PR. That's the problem when music becomes our personal soundtracks.

Staying in the political vein, we go traveling via Yahoo! News to Japan:

OBAMA, Japan - Barack Obama has never been to this port town on Japan's snowy west coast, and residents only know him from news reports on his faraway campaign for the U.S. presidency.

No matter, Obama the town is nuts about Obama the man.

Obama's name graces posters hung in the main hotel. Headbands and T-shirts with drawings of the candidate's face will be available soon. Local confectioners are designing Japanese-style sweet bean cakes with Obama's portrait on them.

Name recognition always helps.

On the sports front I don't even want to think about the Roger Clemens testimony before a congressional hearing. It is such a mess, such a mess! But Arlen Specter is up in arms over the New England Patriots (who beat his Eagles a few years ago in the Super Bowl) and their clandestine taping of their opponents. These are such important matters of national security. As Jon Stewart pointed out the other night there were other tapes destroyed- and I would add- clandestine (warrant-less) taping going on in other places as well.

But here's a neat sports story from Yahoo! News:

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the American football team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children.

Hundreds of shirts and caps, which had been manufactured in advance to celebrate the Patriots' expected victory over the New York Giants, were handed over to children in the southern city of Diriamba.

"The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization.

World Vision has links with the National Football League, or NFL, and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted "winners" shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl.

But perhaps the one that takes the prize for the week (news and "writing news" comes via The Mental Floss Blog:

The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile spun out on snow-covered route 15 near Mansfield, Pennsylvania Sunday and landed in a ditch. The two 22-year-olds in the vehicle knew they were in hot water when they hit an icy patch, but they weren’t hotdogging. It was not an experience they would relish, but they are none the wurst for wear.

And here's the picture to prove it:

7:52 p.m. CST

Just saw what has to be my favorite ad of the game:

E-Trade with the baby making the trade-

and then throwing up.

So I'm strange, but I just laughed and laughed.

More tomorrow. Maybe.

A Headline to Pay Attention To

Here it is, the final reason to get in shape according to a headline on Yahoo! News today:

Getting in shape reduces death risk

That's funny, I thought the risk of death was somewhere in the 100% range.

Two Thoughts for This Monday Morning

1) No NFC #1 seed has ever lost in the divisional playoffs in the 18 years the format has been the way it is now. Until yesterday. Ah, the Cowboys. It couldn't happen to a better bunch of players.

2) Here is the down and dirty word from the National Weather Service at Green Bay, WI, with their extended forecast for next Sunday:

Sunday: Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 7.

And the game doesn't start till the sun goes down. Brrr.

Overwhelmed and Other Quick Thoughts

Today was my first day of orientation at my new job. There were about 30 of us in this week's group. It is two days of information, history, values and mission. We learn about what makes our workplace so unique and so great to work at. (One of the top 100 "Best Places to Work.") We also get to hear about benefits and opportunities and a lot of other things that are required by law or the corporation. At the end of the day tomorrow my supervisor will take me to where I will be working and start that part of the orientation.

To say this is overwhelming is an understatement. Fortunately I know a lot of things, like how benefits work and such. Some people are lost with that. The wide diversity of people and jobs is exciting.

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Well, the snow was- and wasn't. It was a winter storm though. Here we only had about 3 inches, but then there was sleet and then there was freezing rain. Well, I can't say they didn't warn us. Now they tell us we have 2 - 4 inches coming tomorrow. Oh well.

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This evening I did one of my first and most important rituals/necessities when I move someplace new. I went and got myself a library card! Don't leave home without one.

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Perhaps the neatest thing today was actually not directly connected with the orientation but gave it a sense of familiarity....

At lunch I walked around the building where the orientation was being held. It is actually a retirement community and as I walked by the chapel I looked in and saw this Moravian Star! So I took the picture with my trusty phone.

It was a moment of peace to see something with which I am so intimately familiar staring back at me from a new place. Perhaps all places can be home.

Saturday Samplings

Just a few things I have noted today and/or recently that captured my attention:
First, for all Big Ten Football fans the fun of upsets (esp. we Badger fans):

Badgers defeat #10 Michigan while
#1 Ohio State loses to Illinois.

Then Willow Creek Church, the paradigm original of the seeker-sensitive mega-church model,discovers that they were wrong. Here's Bill Hybels:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn't helping people that much. Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

From the Associated Press:

Spanish king tells Chavez to 'shut up'
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."

And finally a quote from poet Robert Frost:

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

Friday- Just Digging Away

Who would have thought I would have to be digging for old records just because I'm getting a new job? Immunization records are important, I guess. I only just found one I was looking for after giving up and thinking about Plan B. You know how you put things away where you are sure to remember where they are? Ah yes, but then you move things around and next thing they aren't anywhere logical.

But I did find my immunization card from the very first Sabin oral polio vaccine in 1963! Amazing what is lost and what is found.

All in Fun

Discovered a fun web site- Groxx.

Groxx is a service of This is True, Randy Cassingham's weird news publication that's been online since 1994. Ever since its start, Randy has allowed readers to send him leads on great articles, especially encouraging stories from small town papers that maybe haven't hit the national wire services like AP and Reuters.

Want to find something wierd and offbeat, this is the place to go.

For example, earlier this week here were several headlines you could have found there:

• Plumber Sues Millionaire Over Stolen Wife. Wins!
• Flaming kamikaze squirrel torches car
• Alabama man stabbed outside Mullet Festival
• German Playboy, 77, Sues for Sex

You even get to vote on them. And yes, that said "Mullet" festival.

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Then there was this earlier in the week:

Iowa man is shot by hunting dog
Associated Press TAMA, IOWA - A man was injured when hunting dogs stepped on his gun. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say the 37-year-old man was pheasant hunting with a group ... when the accident happened. Officials say the group had shot a bird and when the hunter went to retrieve it, he put his gun on the ground and crossed a fence. As he crossed the fence, hunting dogs stepped on his gun causing it to fire.
--Star Tribune

Actually, if the man had bit the dog, then it would have been news.

Heed The Warning

Thanks to Richard at Connexions for passing this on. It is important to be informed!

Generally, I hate the warnings that get sent around but I have to admit that this one is important. Please protect everyone you know by sending this to your entire email list.

If someone comes to your front door and says they are conducting a survey and asks you to show them your bum, do NOT show them your bum.

This is a scam. They only want to see your bum.

I wish I’d got this yesterday, I feel so stupid and cheap.

Quiz Time

Yes, there's always a quiz somewhere waiting to tell me what I'm like. (Actually, there are probably people out there waiting to tell me what I'm like. I usually don't want to talk to them.) I wonder if all this is caused by some kind of unhealthy narcissism. Well, anyway, enough about me. Tell me, what do you think of me.......

You Are Impressionism

You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways. You tend to focus on color and movement in art. For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail. You can find inspiration anywhere... especially from nature.

What Art Movement Are You?

--with a HT to Greg

While I Was "Gone"

Well, since I was on my ten-day recounting of our trip to the Black Hills, I didn't post on some of the interesting things that happened. Here are a few that struck my fancy....

Southwestern Baptist Seminary to Offer Women-Only Program in Homemaking

According to an Associated Press story, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth will, this fall, introduce a new, women-only academic program in homemaking. The 23-hour concentration will count toward a B.A. in humanities. The program is aimed at helping establish what Southwestern's presiden Paige Patterson calls biblical family and gender roles. The 23 hours of coursework consists of: seven hours of nutrition/meal preparation, seven hours of textile design/"clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child," and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family." Women will be taught with an eye toward hospitality as well as children's spiritual, physical and emotional development.
--Crosswalk.com News

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Addiction can be cured in 24 hours: Expert

Express News Service (India)

Pune, August 13: SOON, addicts will be able to overcome their weaknesses within 24 hours, according to de-addiction expert Narendra Chitte who plans to start around 1,000 centres all over the State as part of his ‘Tobacco, alcohol chale jao’ campaign. The centres will offer free de-addiction programmes for the poor, while others will be required to pay a nominal fee.

Chitte runs a de-addiction programme for alcohol, gutkha, nicotine and drug addicts in Pradhikaran, Nigdi. He describes a four-step process for tackling addiction. “Lack of self-confidence and motivation push an addict towards substance abuse. These centres will provide counselling, psychological techniques, a herbal programme and detox consultation that relieve a person of his substance abuse within a day,” he said.

While Chitte agreed that those who undergo de-addiction programmes always have a risk of relapse, he argued, “Around 76 per cent males and 64 per cent of females in the state are substance abusers. The right kind of counselling is to strengthen the addict’s mind against the urge to consume addictive substances. There are no such things as withdrawal symptoms. They are ‘recovery symptoms’ which an addict faces once he stops consuming the substances and is beginning to overcome his addiction.”

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Well, This One Is New... and Unique...

By Matthew Philips
Newsweek
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.