I attended a funeral some time ago for a great man. He wasn’t financially well off, he wasn’t a renowned author or poet, he wasn’t a successful business professional and he was definitely not a celebrity. However, it was clear from the people at the service, from the expression of thanks from those who had known him and from the tears in the crowd, that he was a…

Okay, that's a trick question.  Of course we're all great people in our own way. Each of us are unique and every one of us has had experience that can be very beneficial to share with others. That is what Kamazooie is all about. Ordinary people like you and I, sharing extraordinary experiences with others either for the joy or sharing or to provide some form of guidance to others who might be considering similar ventures, travels or other life…

If You Know Lloyd.... 

This following essay, by Lloyd Romanello of Parma, Ohio, portrays the personal meaning behind the wilderness experience. Short, sweet, and laden deep with words unwritten. Some personal introspection on Lloyds words will uncover much more than a description of a hunt.

- Lark. 

A Favourite Vacation 

Copyright Lloyd…

Sometimes thoughts are not so much words, but impressions.

Copyright March 16, 2000, All Rights Reserved.

Yesterday, at 4:00 p.m. I watched a nine-year old girl get hit by a truck.

Impressions...

At a stopsign... redlight.... Beautiful little girl,crossing, wandering thoughtless in front of my truck, her brother behind, and an adult behind him...

Crossed the lane I was in, proceeded into the next lane

out of the corner of my eye,, a red…

Thoughts Near Christmas

Copyright Lark Ritchie, 1998. All rights reserved.

This past Saturday (December 19, 1998) marked the beginning of winter in this region of Northern Ontario. Although today is the first day of winter (Dec 21st) on Saturday, we experienced our first two inches of snow.

Normally, we can expect our snow to fall and stay sometime during the first or second week of November. I expect this is the snow that will stay until some time in late April. We came…

© 1996, 1997, 1999 Lark Ritchie.

In a series of questions and e-mails over the 'net, the question arose 'Why do we not see many bdad's searching?' and second to that, 'Have they kept these things secret from their families?" Here are some thoughts... Mind you they are not the only responses... each person is unique, each circumstance different, each decision carried out in the best way, at that time, and for a chosen life...

Why Do We See Less Birth Fathers…

© 1996, 1997, 1998, Lark Ritchie.

Adoption is an emotional experience.

It's also a physical experience, a biological and a psychological experience.

Between 1994 and 1998, I acted as a facilitator for an adoption support group in Timmins Ontario. I was also what I call a 'friend' (and sometimes a self imposed facilitator) in the membership of an internet group called 'CANADopt'.

In those roles, and in my own experiences, I have come to see the issues surrounding…

© 1998 Lark Ritchie.

Sharing Post Adoption Issues...

Meets the Third Tuesday of Each Month

7:00 P.M. At 600 Toke Street North Timmins, Ontario, Canada

This Group has since disbanded.

The support group 'Sharing Post Adoption Issues' operated in Timmins for four years, and evolved from an earlier group that existed for some years before. The group provides resources to and supports individuals and families related by adoption. The following essay is…

Copyright Lark Ritchie 1997.

I find hunting similar to the experience of the internet computer user, in that it places the individual in "real time", creating a an intense focus that brings us to a different reality. This intense focus is one aspect that makes hunting so attractive to one who has experienced it. But there are subtle differences that I would like make more clear.

Today's world places us in a frame of mind in which we are constantly concerned about the future or…

Copyright Lark Ritchie 1997.

One of the things I enjoy is a difference of opinions.

Another thing I enjoy is looking at how other people see the world.

Combining these two enjoyments with a passion for communication has up to this point given me opportunities to take on or discard values that I would never have considered evaluating, had such opportunities not been encountered. Why do I consider this important?

Sometimes we hold behaviour and human…

Copyright Lark Ritchie 1997. 

I find hunting similar to the experience of the internet computer user, in that it places the individual in "real time", creating a an intense focus that brings us to a different reality. This intense focus is one aspect that makes hunting so attractive to one who has experienced it. But there are subtle differences that I would like make more clear.

Today's world places us in a frame of mind in which we are constantly concerned about the future or…

The Gifts of Guides

Copyright Lark Ritchie 1995. 1996.

Symbolic Gifts

The gifts of a guide are an axe, a knife, a pair of boots, a compass, a gun, ideas, and the spiritual or mystical gifts of life itself. Although some are tangible and some are not, they are all functional as well as symbolic. They do not have to be given or received serially or chronologically. Some may not be recognized as gifts until long after they are given or received.

A gift is something…

 

Copyright Lark Ritchie 1995. 1996. 1997.

I have switches in my thinking. I think we all do.

By a switch I am talking about a switch in the sense of a light switch, a toggle switch which turns a light either on or off. Switches can only be either on or off. Another sense of a switch, is the railway switch. Similarly it allows one or the other direction possibilities; move the train into track one, or move the train into track two. The switch can never move the train in…

Copyright Lark Ritchie 1995. 1996. 1997.

On a Listserver, an adoptee once wrote...

"i watched a movie on adoption one day and remember seeing the agency worker setting the file on the desk in front of the adoptee and saying to him, 'I'll be back in exactly five minutes' and walked out the door.' The adoptee stared at his wife, and they knew what they were supposed to do.

"When my brother,daughter and I went to (adoption agency) to get info on my bsiblings, the case…

93/03/24 4:15 am

The procedure wasn't anywhere close to the leading edge. The people in the lab were not the stereotype scientists we imagine, in white lab coats and carrying notebooks.

They were kids, between 23 and 28 years of age. They were playing. At the same time, they were learning to become the next frontrunners in the biological sciences.

I was visiting in a University of Toronto laboratory, watching post grads Jim, Austin and Elizabeth extracting chromosomal…

- Jan 23, 1993, 6:30 a.m.

My room is a 4 bed ward, lodging two others and myself.

One is Harvey, a man in his late sixties or early seventies, in because of a hip injury. His mind is gone. He seems to be in a stupor most of the time, caught in some dream-like state, from which I overhear one-sided conversations, either from active dreams, or glimpses and flashes from his memory.

None seem to be oriented to specific topic or subject. It seems as though they are quick…

Anthropology 261 - Primate Behavior - U. Waterloo, 1986.

Lark Ritchie.

Table of Contents

  - Introduction: What is a 'Human'? 6

1. Behavior as an Ultimate Cause for Natural Selection. 9

... A. An Example of Natural Selection Through Behavior. 9

... B. What do Anatomical Differences Mean? 11

... C. Information Processing as the Criterion for Classification.…

Introduction

My interest in the field of anthropology began early, before I knew what anthropology was. Raised in a small town in Northern Ontario, a grandson of a Native Canadian Cree grandparents on one side, and Italian immigrants on the other, the contrast of cultures, values and views raised many questions in me.

I faced many, sometimes confusing differences in cultural attitudes. My Italian grandparents were strong Catholics. 'Nona', (grandmother) was an…