One of the things that cause me to exercise (It is not my habit although I know it's good for me) is a wooded path.
The longer and more twisted the path, the better. And the first time is always the best, but I'm not above trying a path a few times in case I missed something the other times. Truly, I would probably try it many times, because every time is an adventure. There is always something different, a spider's web, a snake hole a strange lichen on the side of a downed tree. And every trip is also dependent on who is with you.
I've gone alone with a camera and alone with nothing. I've gone with other adults and with children of various ages. Each change of companion changes the trip. And season causes changes and weather causes changes and every changes makes the trip unique.
But the best thing, the very best part, is when i see nothing more intrusively human than a worn path in the forest floor.
No human activity.
No sounds but birds and insects and wind and rustling leaves from feet of whatever size.
No smells but forest smells.
No sights of buildings or cars or utility poles; just greens and browns interspersed with bright birds and pastel flowers and glittering rocks for miles.
After that, is the time, for time is a part of any trip.
And while I walk and listen, while I look and wonder, the problems and duties and conflicts and worries slowly fall from me, shed like my own old fall leaves.
Time cures all ills, and wandering forest path time is the most healthful of all in my neck of the woods.
I strongly suggest a wandering walk for today.
May the weather be with you.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017
IMAGINE
I have always been told I have too much imagination. I am not realistic.
According to these people, we live in a democracy. Democracies are always capitalistic. Supply and demand should always be allowed to control everything--it will keep things fair and real. Good people always come out ahead in the end. Bad people always get their comeuppance. Hard work always pays off. Honesty is the best policy. Poor people are just lazy. We live in the best country in the world. People in our state are the salt of the earth. There is only one true religion--that is why they follow it. And last but far from least--quit rocking the boat.
I have, at one time or another thrown serious questions at every one of those truths.
I might be a boat rocker.
I thought as I got older I would realize that the real world would take over my world view--maybe even had to. I expected to come to agree with those people that constantly explained so patiently what was wrong with my imaginings about a better world---a better system of human governance.
I'm older.
It didn't happen.
The world is full of different ways of doing things. It has always been full of different ways of doing things. As a child, I loved history--history movies, family history, history classes--but only later, when I went from the required American history class to those odd history classes that were elective unless you actually had a history major--did I get to see behind the curtain. Our official history is not very similar to every other place, culture, people, religion and country's history. To understand a single war you must read many books from many perspectives and even then, you must be aware that its a book and does not cover everything.
The same is true of every leader's record and every religion's story. To think you can memorize some dates and the names of some wars and presidents and know what happened, what was real, what caused what---ridiculous. There is always more. And in that more, there are people, millions of people, diverse people, rich and poor people, all kinds of people with all kinds of imaginings.
The world is full of people that would love it if the world was more peaceful, more equal, slower paced, more cooperative. Those people would be happier with sharing what they have more of than they need in exchange for what we have more of than we need. They would be happy to show us their customs, their cooking, their clothing and jewelry designs and in exchange, we could show them ours.
We teach toddlers to share. Sharing is not oppositional to our humanness.
I used to tell my parents that if we all had a job we liked, one we felt good about: that used our strengths without being too boring or too unchallenging or too stressful. And because all any of us really have is time--and not a known endless supply of that, we could all make the same amount of money for the time we do for our job. Because aren't we just trading our time for money?
Oh--the warnings I received. The horrors described to me. The awful people that would want to do easy work they weren't suited to and the lazy people that would do jobs too easy for them and---how would we know who was successful?
I argued, and explained, but ultimately the response was that without competition, no one would actually accomplish anything. No one would strive. Nothing new would ever be created.
Kind of funny, as my father created new things all the time, for free, because he needed something that did something and either no such tool was for sale or it was way too expensive. Sometimes he made stuff for no other reason than he was bored.
He was terrible at business and hated working for other people because they wanted him to build things the way they said--even when it wouldn't work as well. He spent his life doing work that was both boring and hateful to him and only at retirement did he get to do what he wanted. He worked everyday after he retired at 63 until he was 76. Then he focused on gardening until his health gave out entirely.
So many years doing what he hated then 13 years he loved.
I fear I follow in his footsteps.
I am capable of doing many things I enjoy.
They pay less than my bills each month.
So I do whatever job I can find that does not make me dread every day so I can pay my bills and dream of retiring--to the work I want to do.
I imagine a world in which every life is valuable enough to not be wasted in such a way. A world in which those things that are doable by most people but held in low regard and given low pay will allow everyone to do what they love some of the time and allow those that actually like that work to make a living at it.
We hold our reality too close. We lose sight of potentials that are not impossible--just not currently the way we do things. We stop people with imagination from helping to make the world a much better place.
We are governed by sheepherders that don't like sheep.
The world can be better. Most of us believe that. Most of us have to believe that to keep going.
Just imagine a world doing what you love---every day--with people you love--every day.
No more losers that day--every day a special day worth living.
Just imagine....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_YXSHkAahE
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Reality Check
Extremism makes people think in extremes. Polarization is another word for extremism. Thinking in extremes is both dramatic and scary---but not necessarily reality based.
Reality has been taking a hit what with alternative facts and such. But is still where most of us are trying to live.
Reality is--I'm sitting in a comfortably warm room with sufficient lighting and writing on my computer. I'm not in hiding from a fascist regime out to get me (picture the diary of Ann Frank). I'm not walking toward the border trying to escape a civil war that has destroyed my house and my neighbors houses (think Syrian refugees trying to get away from the fighting and find a place to raise their families). I'm not stuck in a tiny cabin with inadequate food watching those around me be beaten or misused because I was sold into slavery and bought by a people that thought owning other people was OK (think American slavery).
I am not being forced into a marriage with someone I don't love or being left on the prairie in winter because I'm old. I am not being burned for practicing herbal medicine or refusing to go to the approved church. I am not being denied a job because of the color of my skin or the language I speak. I am not being taxed at such a high rate I can't afford the basics necessary to life. I am not refused emergency medical care because I don't have the money to pay for care. I am not being stoned for a romantic tryst. I am not being put in an orphanage for being born female. I can still go to school if I have the money, and I went for free as a child.
My life could be much worse. There are people whose lives were much worse. There are people whose lives are still much worse. And while many of those people are in other parts of the world or in other times, many are also in this country--now.
I am lucky.
There is sex trafficking in my town, both of adults from other countries and children from here and other countries.
There are people wrapped in garbage bags and newspaper trying to sleep out in the cold.
There are people that can tell me where the best dumpsters for edible food are and when is the best time to get to them. They can also tell me what businesses pour bleach on their old food and take box knives to the clothing and shoes that go to the dumpster.
There are people locked in dormitories brought to this country for good jobs that are not allowed to leave and are charged all of that "good money" for the crappy food they are allowed to eat and for the cot in an unheated warehouse they get to sleep.
There are old men and women whose utilities are off because they are buying their very expensive medications.
There are mentally ill people that are fighting internal monsters while the people running their boardinghouse keep the money and treat them badly and don't give them their medications.
I am independent, free to use my money as I wish, and capable of choosing how to spend my time.
I am lucky.
So when I hear about a wall going up, I think about the amazing great wall of china which no longer separates 2 kingdoms but serves as a tourist attraction and the Berlin Wall which was so despised--a symbol of what was wrong in the world and the great joy when it fell. I have never been to Mexico. I don't know anyone in Mexico at this time. This wall will not affect me personally.
I am lucky.
When I hear about a ban on Syrian refugees and no more Muslim immigrants. I'm not Muslim or even religious. I have never been to Syria. I don't know anyone from Syria. This change will not affect me.
I am lucky.
When I hear the war against abortion rights and women's rights to choose about their bodies is being attacked--again, I don't like it, because I'm a woman. But this will not affect me personally.
I am Lucky.
When I hear about a hiring freeze on federal employees, I realize that Veteran's just lost the availability of a lot of good jobs that they would have normally had a good shot at and that Veterans Healthcare, currently actively seeking both physicians and workers, will just have to continue limping along understaffed. I realize that the Post Office may really go away. But I am not a Veteran.
I am Lucky.
When I hear about getting rid of 75% of government regulations, I'm afraid that will mean environmental protection--stopping waste, toxins, poisons, being dumped into our water or released into our air so that the corporations that were spending money to keep their factories from endangering us all can make more money. That will affect me. But I am old so it will probably only shorten my live slightly.
I am lucky.
When I hear about us returning to a full-fledged coal and oil dependency in the name of our coal and oil workers and coal and oil barons, I'm disturbed. But I have a Prius. And I don't use coal. And while I would love to see the skies continue to clear and waters to be spring-like, I am old--it will be alright. My child-bearing days are over. I will not have to see my descendants choked by the air or their babies malformed from drinking water contaminated not only with petroleum but with benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene and other chemicals used to force the oil from the earth. All I have to worry about is the multiple earthquakes that shake my house everyday and threaten to drop my bedroom down a floor or wedge my doors shut. There are worse ways to die than in an earthquake.
I am lucky.
When I hear about denial of climate change, by men that profit from not believing in climate change, I am curious about those minds that can so lie to themselves that they endanger all those species--including our own. But while I have never seen weather like this, the changes were already starting when I was a child. It is obviously speeding up, and I will have to die before my statistically promised life expectancy is reached or move further north soon, if I would survive summers. I fear I cannot afford to move. I hear that while hyperthermia is not a pleasant death, it is relatively quick.
I am lucky.
I hope the changes don't get worse than this. I fear my lucky streak may end.
Reality has been taking a hit what with alternative facts and such. But is still where most of us are trying to live.
Reality is--I'm sitting in a comfortably warm room with sufficient lighting and writing on my computer. I'm not in hiding from a fascist regime out to get me (picture the diary of Ann Frank). I'm not walking toward the border trying to escape a civil war that has destroyed my house and my neighbors houses (think Syrian refugees trying to get away from the fighting and find a place to raise their families). I'm not stuck in a tiny cabin with inadequate food watching those around me be beaten or misused because I was sold into slavery and bought by a people that thought owning other people was OK (think American slavery).
I am not being forced into a marriage with someone I don't love or being left on the prairie in winter because I'm old. I am not being burned for practicing herbal medicine or refusing to go to the approved church. I am not being denied a job because of the color of my skin or the language I speak. I am not being taxed at such a high rate I can't afford the basics necessary to life. I am not refused emergency medical care because I don't have the money to pay for care. I am not being stoned for a romantic tryst. I am not being put in an orphanage for being born female. I can still go to school if I have the money, and I went for free as a child.
My life could be much worse. There are people whose lives were much worse. There are people whose lives are still much worse. And while many of those people are in other parts of the world or in other times, many are also in this country--now.
I am lucky.
There is sex trafficking in my town, both of adults from other countries and children from here and other countries.
There are people wrapped in garbage bags and newspaper trying to sleep out in the cold.
There are people that can tell me where the best dumpsters for edible food are and when is the best time to get to them. They can also tell me what businesses pour bleach on their old food and take box knives to the clothing and shoes that go to the dumpster.
There are people locked in dormitories brought to this country for good jobs that are not allowed to leave and are charged all of that "good money" for the crappy food they are allowed to eat and for the cot in an unheated warehouse they get to sleep.
There are old men and women whose utilities are off because they are buying their very expensive medications.
There are mentally ill people that are fighting internal monsters while the people running their boardinghouse keep the money and treat them badly and don't give them their medications.
I am independent, free to use my money as I wish, and capable of choosing how to spend my time.
I am lucky.
So when I hear about a wall going up, I think about the amazing great wall of china which no longer separates 2 kingdoms but serves as a tourist attraction and the Berlin Wall which was so despised--a symbol of what was wrong in the world and the great joy when it fell. I have never been to Mexico. I don't know anyone in Mexico at this time. This wall will not affect me personally.
I am lucky.
When I hear about a ban on Syrian refugees and no more Muslim immigrants. I'm not Muslim or even religious. I have never been to Syria. I don't know anyone from Syria. This change will not affect me.
I am lucky.
When I hear the war against abortion rights and women's rights to choose about their bodies is being attacked--again, I don't like it, because I'm a woman. But this will not affect me personally.
I am Lucky.
When I hear about a hiring freeze on federal employees, I realize that Veteran's just lost the availability of a lot of good jobs that they would have normally had a good shot at and that Veterans Healthcare, currently actively seeking both physicians and workers, will just have to continue limping along understaffed. I realize that the Post Office may really go away. But I am not a Veteran.
I am Lucky.
When I hear about getting rid of 75% of government regulations, I'm afraid that will mean environmental protection--stopping waste, toxins, poisons, being dumped into our water or released into our air so that the corporations that were spending money to keep their factories from endangering us all can make more money. That will affect me. But I am old so it will probably only shorten my live slightly.
I am lucky.
When I hear about us returning to a full-fledged coal and oil dependency in the name of our coal and oil workers and coal and oil barons, I'm disturbed. But I have a Prius. And I don't use coal. And while I would love to see the skies continue to clear and waters to be spring-like, I am old--it will be alright. My child-bearing days are over. I will not have to see my descendants choked by the air or their babies malformed from drinking water contaminated not only with petroleum but with benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene and other chemicals used to force the oil from the earth. All I have to worry about is the multiple earthquakes that shake my house everyday and threaten to drop my bedroom down a floor or wedge my doors shut. There are worse ways to die than in an earthquake.
I am lucky.
When I hear about denial of climate change, by men that profit from not believing in climate change, I am curious about those minds that can so lie to themselves that they endanger all those species--including our own. But while I have never seen weather like this, the changes were already starting when I was a child. It is obviously speeding up, and I will have to die before my statistically promised life expectancy is reached or move further north soon, if I would survive summers. I fear I cannot afford to move. I hear that while hyperthermia is not a pleasant death, it is relatively quick.
I am lucky.
I hope the changes don't get worse than this. I fear my lucky streak may end.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
What is fascism, really?
definitions:
a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.
an authoritarian form of government, although not all authoritarian regimes are fascist.
(Originally, "fascism" referred to a political movement that was linked with corporatism )
fascism, especially once in power, has historically attacked communism, conservatism and liberalism, attracting support primarily from what in a classical sense is called the "far right" or "extreme right"
the dictatorship of the most reactionary elements of financial capitalism.--Fascism is an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of the financial capital... Fascism is neither the government beyond classes nor the government of the petty bourgeois or the lumpen-proletariat over the financial capital. Fascism is the government of the financial capital itself. It is an organized massacre of the working class and the revolutionary slice of peasantry and intelligentsia. Fascism in its foreign policy is the most brutal kind of chauvinism, which cultivates zoological hatred against other peoples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
Perhaps, its like pornography--"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"
"At rallies—surrounded by supporters wearing black shirts—_________ caught the imagination of the crowds. His physique was impressive, and his style of oratory, staccato and repetitive, was superb. His attitudes were highly theatrical, his opinions were contradictory, his facts were often wrong, and his attacks were frequently malicious and misdirected; but his words were so dramatic, his metaphors so apt and striking, his vigorous, repetitive gestures so extraordinarily effective, that he rarely failed to impose his mood."
If you thought I was describing Donald Trump, Surprise! This is a description of Benito Mussolini and his rise to power--Officially the first fascist leader at the beginning of a fascist rise that covered most of Europe and much of the American continent during the 1920's to as late as the mid-1970's.
The current rise of the ALT RIGHT, is a blatant attempt to resurrect the Nazi Party of Germany. Adoph Hitler, a man of similar beliefs and oratory abilities to Benito Mussolini, raised the Nazi Party to a power which endangered the entire world--unless you were one of them.
That is the thing that doesn't seem to catch the people currently loving our latest rise of Fascism. It is only great to White Men. Their children and wives seem to be on board, but the females are not in line for any perks except not being threatened as long as one of the white males is protecting them, supporting them, and not tired of them.
Amazingly, fascism is not about anything but money and power. Deciding who has it. Deciding who doesn't. It is all about putting the power of the money in the hands of white men, and keeping it there--by any means necessary.
Fascism is about Business over individuals.
Fascism is about Caucasian over any other race.
Fascism is about Male over female and heterosexual over any other choices.
But the thing to remember, the most important thing to remember, is that all those fascist regimes, all those dictators, all those government changes were made through the normal election processes of the nations that became fascist.
They were voted in or appointed using the current government laws and rules; then all the checks and balances, all the individual protections of the people were removed by the new governing party using those same rules that changed such things as the tax rate and the budget. All the opportunities for bettering yourself, your life, your family's lives, became dependent upon:
being white
being male
being a member of the fascist party.
If I were a billionaire white male with a tendency toward white supremecy (say, my father was arrested in 1927 at a KKK rally in Queens, New York), and favored women from parts of the world that had to use their beauty and bodies to obtain a man that could keep them in the manner they preferred, I might prefer it if my country was fascist. I might even love knowing that in a fascist nation, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
The rest of us need to stay more alert than the world did in the 1930's when fascism caused World War II.
There were a lot of loser's in that one--on a personal level. And a lot of them were white men with a soul.
a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.
an authoritarian form of government, although not all authoritarian regimes are fascist.
(Originally, "fascism" referred to a political movement that was linked with corporatism )
fascism, especially once in power, has historically attacked communism, conservatism and liberalism, attracting support primarily from what in a classical sense is called the "far right" or "extreme right"
the dictatorship of the most reactionary elements of financial capitalism.--Fascism is an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of the financial capital... Fascism is neither the government beyond classes nor the government of the petty bourgeois or the lumpen-proletariat over the financial capital. Fascism is the government of the financial capital itself. It is an organized massacre of the working class and the revolutionary slice of peasantry and intelligentsia. Fascism in its foreign policy is the most brutal kind of chauvinism, which cultivates zoological hatred against other peoples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
Perhaps, its like pornography--"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"
"At rallies—surrounded by supporters wearing black shirts—_________ caught the imagination of the crowds. His physique was impressive, and his style of oratory, staccato and repetitive, was superb. His attitudes were highly theatrical, his opinions were contradictory, his facts were often wrong, and his attacks were frequently malicious and misdirected; but his words were so dramatic, his metaphors so apt and striking, his vigorous, repetitive gestures so extraordinarily effective, that he rarely failed to impose his mood."
If you thought I was describing Donald Trump, Surprise! This is a description of Benito Mussolini and his rise to power--Officially the first fascist leader at the beginning of a fascist rise that covered most of Europe and much of the American continent during the 1920's to as late as the mid-1970's.
The current rise of the ALT RIGHT, is a blatant attempt to resurrect the Nazi Party of Germany. Adoph Hitler, a man of similar beliefs and oratory abilities to Benito Mussolini, raised the Nazi Party to a power which endangered the entire world--unless you were one of them.
That is the thing that doesn't seem to catch the people currently loving our latest rise of Fascism. It is only great to White Men. Their children and wives seem to be on board, but the females are not in line for any perks except not being threatened as long as one of the white males is protecting them, supporting them, and not tired of them.
Amazingly, fascism is not about anything but money and power. Deciding who has it. Deciding who doesn't. It is all about putting the power of the money in the hands of white men, and keeping it there--by any means necessary.
Fascism is about Business over individuals.
Fascism is about Caucasian over any other race.
Fascism is about Male over female and heterosexual over any other choices.
But the thing to remember, the most important thing to remember, is that all those fascist regimes, all those dictators, all those government changes were made through the normal election processes of the nations that became fascist.
They were voted in or appointed using the current government laws and rules; then all the checks and balances, all the individual protections of the people were removed by the new governing party using those same rules that changed such things as the tax rate and the budget. All the opportunities for bettering yourself, your life, your family's lives, became dependent upon:
being white
being male
being a member of the fascist party.
If I were a billionaire white male with a tendency toward white supremecy (say, my father was arrested in 1927 at a KKK rally in Queens, New York), and favored women from parts of the world that had to use their beauty and bodies to obtain a man that could keep them in the manner they preferred, I might prefer it if my country was fascist. I might even love knowing that in a fascist nation, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
The rest of us need to stay more alert than the world did in the 1930's when fascism caused World War II.
There were a lot of loser's in that one--on a personal level. And a lot of them were white men with a soul.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
nobody's wingman
The real definition of a wingman is a pilot whose aircraft is positioned behind and outside the leading aircraft in a formation. I knew this definition from old war movies. The hero was never the wingman.
Modern definition of a Wingman (this was borrowed from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wingman because it is great )
A Wingman is a guy you bring along with you on singles
outings (like to bars) that helps you out with the women.
Typically in these ways :
• The Wingman will always be there to “occupy” least
attractive girl of the pair so that you may engage in the “hotty”
• Often, when an attractive girl is out with an ugly friend, she often feels restricted to not leave that ugly friend alone, thus making the hot girl, un-touchable.
• When the wingman technique is used, both girls are
approached by the men, and the Wingman automatically
engages in conversation with the ugly girl.
• Now that the hot friend sees that the ugly girl has finally found a man, she is now free to start scouting.
• This is where you come in “unexpectidly” and “accidentaly”, and begin catching up on “old times” with the Wingman.
• The Wingman then offers the ugly girl to dance, (which
rarely happens to her) so she wont be able to resist.
The wingman in this definition is also never the hero.
(this concept is repulsive on soooo mannnny levels)
I have noticed that many people allow themselves to be permanently cast in the wingman role. Empty nester's, political wives, maybe all wives, single parents without partners, grandparents, roommates, you know---the beta wolves in the many relationships that make up our lives.
There is nothing wrong with being a beta, or being a caregiver, or being anything in a relationship unless we loose our selves without the role telling us who we are.
We all need to be---really be--without some other being telling us who we are.
If you have seen a widow that can't redefine herself except as a wife, a mother whose child is killed or merely grows up to be a successful and independent person, a divorcee that immediately starts hunting for a replacement spouse, a grandparent that has traded parenting for grandparenting with equal zeal, or worse the person that suddenly need pills and alcohol to fill the void.
They feel like they have lost someone.
They have.
They have lost themselves.
None of us are here just to be someone else's wingman. We are all the hero's of our own stories, even if we make the story dark or tragic or pathetically shallow and superficial.
I am making my story, you are making your story. And while you might have relationships, in fact you will have relationships---we are all in some sort of relationship with everyone else that crosses the path that is our life, we are not JUST the relationship. We are not defined by our relationships, no matter how much we love--or hate, no matter how much we give--or take. We define ourselves.
No one should think of themselves as just the wingman for someone else's success in life.
Live your whole life.
Be your whole self.
There are endless adventures for us all, at all ages.
Enjoy.
Modern definition of a Wingman (this was borrowed from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wingman because it is great )
A Wingman is a guy you bring along with you on singles
outings (like to bars) that helps you out with the women.
Typically in these ways :
• The Wingman will always be there to “occupy” least
attractive girl of the pair so that you may engage in the “hotty”
• Often, when an attractive girl is out with an ugly friend, she often feels restricted to not leave that ugly friend alone, thus making the hot girl, un-touchable.
• When the wingman technique is used, both girls are
approached by the men, and the Wingman automatically
engages in conversation with the ugly girl.
• Now that the hot friend sees that the ugly girl has finally found a man, she is now free to start scouting.
• This is where you come in “unexpectidly” and “accidentaly”, and begin catching up on “old times” with the Wingman.
• The Wingman then offers the ugly girl to dance, (which
rarely happens to her) so she wont be able to resist.
The wingman in this definition is also never the hero.
(this concept is repulsive on soooo mannnny levels)
I have noticed that many people allow themselves to be permanently cast in the wingman role. Empty nester's, political wives, maybe all wives, single parents without partners, grandparents, roommates, you know---the beta wolves in the many relationships that make up our lives.
There is nothing wrong with being a beta, or being a caregiver, or being anything in a relationship unless we loose our selves without the role telling us who we are.
We all need to be---really be--without some other being telling us who we are.
If you have seen a widow that can't redefine herself except as a wife, a mother whose child is killed or merely grows up to be a successful and independent person, a divorcee that immediately starts hunting for a replacement spouse, a grandparent that has traded parenting for grandparenting with equal zeal, or worse the person that suddenly need pills and alcohol to fill the void.
They feel like they have lost someone.
They have.
They have lost themselves.
None of us are here just to be someone else's wingman. We are all the hero's of our own stories, even if we make the story dark or tragic or pathetically shallow and superficial.
I am making my story, you are making your story. And while you might have relationships, in fact you will have relationships---we are all in some sort of relationship with everyone else that crosses the path that is our life, we are not JUST the relationship. We are not defined by our relationships, no matter how much we love--or hate, no matter how much we give--or take. We define ourselves.
No one should think of themselves as just the wingman for someone else's success in life.
Live your whole life.
Be your whole self.
There are endless adventures for us all, at all ages.
Enjoy.
Monday, January 2, 2017
predictions for 2017
I've never really done predictions but thought this year would be a good year to try to predict what will, or better yet, what will not happen.
- President Trump will NOT start a nuclear war. (maybe 2018 or 2019, but not 2017)
- We are going to have trade wars with China, (China's exports to the US amounted to $502.7 billion or 21.8% of its overall imports. America's exports to China amounted to
$116.2 billion or 7.7% of its overall exports) - There is going to be an increase in police/minority hostilities.
- There is going to be an increase in protests about minimum wage and about the environment; they will become longer and more violent.
- Next school year, we will be looking at a problem with decreasing teacher pay and more states going with vouchers so that parents can find their own schools. With the government out of the education business, college entrance exams will be the only way to tell how the schools are doing. College expenses will continue up, the only ones applying for those will be those with some means, so we will not know how many poor students are being uneducated. (This is actually the goal.)
- Abortion will go to the supreme court again after the new Judge is confirmed--and it will lose. We will start seeing the old back alley deaths among the poor and desperate again.
- While taxes will go down, it won't happen in 2017 and only the top 5% of earners will see it.
- The national deficit will go up as corporations are given more perks for doing their business here.
- A few factories will return, and will hire their new workers at minimum wage.
- A new political party will start that is neither republican or democrat, but rather progressive.
- There will be a rise in hate crimes.
- There will be a decrease in people trying to enter this country legally or illegally.
- There will be a new US/Russian Alliance that is focused on trade and defense.
- The stock market is going to take a turn for the worst after the inauguration causing a return of recession.
- There will be an increase in air pollution and water pollution and health issues will increase. Masks will be as popular here as they are in china.
- The ACA will be repealed and nothing will replace it although several bills will be started that focus on making states solely accountable for their poor people's health.
- There will be no state of union addresses, but there will be frequent tweets of the union. All the news will be limited to 140 characters.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
A war on poverty versus a war against the poor.
I keep seeing spikes in places homeless people used to sleep and police taking the belongings of transients and people arrested for feeding homeless people. I hear coworkers griping about welfare queens like the Clinton Presidency didn't stop that in the 1990's. I hear nurses griping about poor people abusing the emergency room because they are not having a real emergency while living in a state that didn't expand medicaid--thus millions still without health coverage have no choice but the ER. I see people griping about people in dirty clothes and stinking when they walk past them on the street and trying to figure out how to remove those awful people from the scenery.
America HATES poor people.
We have a choice to make. Do we fight poverty, or more specifically, decrease income inequality and improve opportunities for those not born into wealthy families, or do we just keep treating poor people like the enemy and fighting a war against their right to exist.
Being poor should not be a crime (unless it is a crime committed by the state). Creating and maintaining poor people via institutionalized inequities should be.
Tenement housing in the United States started soon after the revolution. In the very early 1800's, New York City began replacing single family residences with multistory (low to us now) multi unit dwellings. Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings–many of them concentrated in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood–were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. By 1900, some 2.3 million people (a full two-thirds of New York City’s population) were living in tenement housing. While the wealthy didn't live there, immigrants and eventually freedmen moved there. It was the original melting pot--a place where a few found ways out and many drowned in crime and poverty.
The idea of keeping all the less desireables in one area quickly caught on and every large city developed their own tenement areas. Smaller towns had to satisfy this need to not see, hear, or touch the ostracized--the American version of the "Untouchables" with railroad tracks. Thus all those people that were born on the wrong side of the tracks.
The above pictures are government housing projects. People with minimal money packed tightly together. Inevitably the projects are placed in places that no one cares about--many relatively low-incomed have fought them being built in their area and won. So a city will have one or two or three areas that get the projects. Those areas are never the ones that the old money is in. And they are not the areas that the new and developing businesses are buying in. They put them where the old, culturally diverse, struggling to make it people are.
The places rapidly fill up with those with individuals that gained the least from their local schools. They provide no mentors for the young as those people are not living in these places. They are frequently in food deserts. They are under served by public transportation. They provide all the children raised in them with a first row seat to despair, poverty, hopelessness, chemical dependency, violence and death. They are their own kind of public education system.
People that can, avoid ever going near them. They are dangerous.
Babies and toddlers and little old ladies live in them. Frequently for their entire lives.
Why do we concentrate all that horribleness? Why fix it where those without can never know anyone, see anyone, meet anyone in their neighborhood but other people that have no hope but for a life of crime, addiction or violence?
Drug lords and organized crime become the modern version of RobinHood.
Sports, Music, and Acting become a possible way to fame and fortune with the expectation that the lucky young man or woman will pull the whole family out of the place they are mired in.
Before Social Security (1935), the poor house or poor farm was where the disabled, elderly, sickly and mentally ill would end up if they didn't have family that could afford to care for them. The poorhouse was more institutional and until recently, many elderly associated them with Nursing Homes (having visited a few of the poorer versions of the nursing home, I can't even imagine them
when they were poorhouses and unmonitored for abuse and neglect)
Poor farms, which would take whole families at times, resembled prison farms and were not for those that were physically disabled. They were not better than the poorhouses, but at least there was exercise and fresh air. Both the poorhouse and the poorfarm had virtually disappeared by 1950 in the US.
Anti-loitering laws were originally to prevent homeless people from sitting in public areas, begging in public areas, and sleeping in public areas. (then they were altered in the 1990's to stop gangs)
Public urination laws used to be about preventing people that weren't allowed to use public restrooms from urinating in alleys and parks. (I wonder when and who that was directed at) These days, the same laws are aimed at intoxicated people, homeless people and those that like to expose themselves. To think that a homeless person could get on the sexual predator list for having to go #1 is rather interesting. As every 3 year old knows, we all have to go.
Why do those that aren't poor hate those that are?
Why do we assume that they would be fine if they had worked hard in school, listened to their parents, respected their elders, obeyed the law and gone to church.
Why do we assume that the kids made it to school daily or that their school was teaching them what they needed and not just trying to deal with the effects of a couple hundred poor kids a day--hungry, sick, malnourished, heavy-metal poisoned, PTSD'd kids. Kids that watched their grandma get beaten, their father shoot up, their mother supplementing her income as a sex worker in a one room apartment, the attendant raping the kid in the next bed of the shelter, the foster dad selling kiddy porn.
And this is where the middle says--"see, I don't want my kid exposed to that, those people, those people..........."
Those people that are living in concentrated abuse and neglect with no way out, no helping hands, no mentors, no hope. We have created concentration camps for our poor people so that not just one man or one family is degraded, but so that everyone is exposed to everyone else's trauma, abuse, neglect, and insanity.
We have created hell on earth.
Then we hate them for their lack of courage, their inability to rise above it, their moral failures and their ultimate passing on of the legacy of poverty.
My family passed along a love of fried food (yes, you can fry everything, anything and everything), cookies and gardening. I have friends that's families love beer and football. I have met people that have reunions to celebrate every graduation from the family university. We all love to pass along family traditions. But no one wants to admit their family has pedophiles or alcoholics or gambler's that can't quite quit. Those get passed along also unless something or someone stops the cycle. Picture growing up seeing all of the above and more on a daily basis. And no one ever breaking any cycle.
Why would anyone question 200+ years of desperation, hunger and need leading to a family where every one does time in prison for trying to make some money they only way they have been taught.
Poor people need the same thing everyone else needs to succeed:
Poor people aren't the enemy. Poverty is. And income inequality is making this worse. We need to change the "survival of the fittest" mentality to one of cooperation and collaboration to make our country a good home for all its citizens.
The problem is only insurmountable when we keep doing everything the same as we did in the middle ages.
America HATES poor people.
We have a choice to make. Do we fight poverty, or more specifically, decrease income inequality and improve opportunities for those not born into wealthy families, or do we just keep treating poor people like the enemy and fighting a war against their right to exist.
Being poor should not be a crime (unless it is a crime committed by the state). Creating and maintaining poor people via institutionalized inequities should be.
Tenement housing in the United States started soon after the revolution. In the very early 1800's, New York City began replacing single family residences with multistory (low to us now) multi unit dwellings. Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings–many of them concentrated in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood–were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. By 1900, some 2.3 million people (a full two-thirds of New York City’s population) were living in tenement housing. While the wealthy didn't live there, immigrants and eventually freedmen moved there. It was the original melting pot--a place where a few found ways out and many drowned in crime and poverty.
The idea of keeping all the less desireables in one area quickly caught on and every large city developed their own tenement areas. Smaller towns had to satisfy this need to not see, hear, or touch the ostracized--the American version of the "Untouchables" with railroad tracks. Thus all those people that were born on the wrong side of the tracks.
The above pictures are government housing projects. People with minimal money packed tightly together. Inevitably the projects are placed in places that no one cares about--many relatively low-incomed have fought them being built in their area and won. So a city will have one or two or three areas that get the projects. Those areas are never the ones that the old money is in. And they are not the areas that the new and developing businesses are buying in. They put them where the old, culturally diverse, struggling to make it people are.The places rapidly fill up with those with individuals that gained the least from their local schools. They provide no mentors for the young as those people are not living in these places. They are frequently in food deserts. They are under served by public transportation. They provide all the children raised in them with a first row seat to despair, poverty, hopelessness, chemical dependency, violence and death. They are their own kind of public education system.
People that can, avoid ever going near them. They are dangerous.
Babies and toddlers and little old ladies live in them. Frequently for their entire lives.
Why do we concentrate all that horribleness? Why fix it where those without can never know anyone, see anyone, meet anyone in their neighborhood but other people that have no hope but for a life of crime, addiction or violence?
Drug lords and organized crime become the modern version of RobinHood.
Sports, Music, and Acting become a possible way to fame and fortune with the expectation that the lucky young man or woman will pull the whole family out of the place they are mired in.
Before Social Security (1935), the poor house or poor farm was where the disabled, elderly, sickly and mentally ill would end up if they didn't have family that could afford to care for them. The poorhouse was more institutional and until recently, many elderly associated them with Nursing Homes (having visited a few of the poorer versions of the nursing home, I can't even imagine them
when they were poorhouses and unmonitored for abuse and neglect)
Poor farms, which would take whole families at times, resembled prison farms and were not for those that were physically disabled. They were not better than the poorhouses, but at least there was exercise and fresh air. Both the poorhouse and the poorfarm had virtually disappeared by 1950 in the US.
Anti-loitering laws were originally to prevent homeless people from sitting in public areas, begging in public areas, and sleeping in public areas. (then they were altered in the 1990's to stop gangs)
Public urination laws used to be about preventing people that weren't allowed to use public restrooms from urinating in alleys and parks. (I wonder when and who that was directed at) These days, the same laws are aimed at intoxicated people, homeless people and those that like to expose themselves. To think that a homeless person could get on the sexual predator list for having to go #1 is rather interesting. As every 3 year old knows, we all have to go.
- Citywide bans on camping in public have increased by 60 percent.
- Citywide bans on begging have increased by 25 percent.
- Citywide bans on loitering, loafing, and vagrancy have increased by 35 percent.
- Citywide bans on sitting or lying down in particular public places have increased by 43 percent.
- Bans on sleeping in vehicles have increased by 119 percent.
Why do those that aren't poor hate those that are?
Why do we assume that they would be fine if they had worked hard in school, listened to their parents, respected their elders, obeyed the law and gone to church.
Why do we assume that the kids made it to school daily or that their school was teaching them what they needed and not just trying to deal with the effects of a couple hundred poor kids a day--hungry, sick, malnourished, heavy-metal poisoned, PTSD'd kids. Kids that watched their grandma get beaten, their father shoot up, their mother supplementing her income as a sex worker in a one room apartment, the attendant raping the kid in the next bed of the shelter, the foster dad selling kiddy porn.
And this is where the middle says--"see, I don't want my kid exposed to that, those people, those people..........."
Those people that are living in concentrated abuse and neglect with no way out, no helping hands, no mentors, no hope. We have created concentration camps for our poor people so that not just one man or one family is degraded, but so that everyone is exposed to everyone else's trauma, abuse, neglect, and insanity.
We have created hell on earth.
Then we hate them for their lack of courage, their inability to rise above it, their moral failures and their ultimate passing on of the legacy of poverty.
My family passed along a love of fried food (yes, you can fry everything, anything and everything), cookies and gardening. I have friends that's families love beer and football. I have met people that have reunions to celebrate every graduation from the family university. We all love to pass along family traditions. But no one wants to admit their family has pedophiles or alcoholics or gambler's that can't quite quit. Those get passed along also unless something or someone stops the cycle. Picture growing up seeing all of the above and more on a daily basis. And no one ever breaking any cycle.
Why would anyone question 200+ years of desperation, hunger and need leading to a family where every one does time in prison for trying to make some money they only way they have been taught.
Poor people need the same thing everyone else needs to succeed:
- role models that they know well and see daily succeeding
- early access to good learning opportunities--4 years old is too late
- someone to help them process those things they see that scare and terrify them (and not to live in a place where scary and terrifying things happen daily)
- a safe environment that is neither too cold or too hot, too crowded or too empty of stimuli
- healthy food and clean water
- a variety of people to interact with so they can see that there is more than one possible direction to go in their life.
- an understanding of their roots--and an ability to feel pride in those roots
- an understanding of their own possibilities in which they see enough people succeed that they believe they can also.
Poor people aren't the enemy. Poverty is. And income inequality is making this worse. We need to change the "survival of the fittest" mentality to one of cooperation and collaboration to make our country a good home for all its citizens.
The problem is only insurmountable when we keep doing everything the same as we did in the middle ages.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
do not define me.
Life is not business, it’s personal.
I am not an entry in a spreadsheet.
You cannot build an algorithm to define me or predict my behavior.
My love of oil paint or yellow roses or green rocks is not important marketing information.
You cannot make predictions about my quality of life based on my age, BMI and current use of government assistance programs.
You can not pigeon hole my vote because of my age or my sex or even my registered party.
Statistics may tell you a lot about a population, but they tell you nothing about an individual.
The average American was born in the same state they live now. They are white. They are slightly more likely to be female. They are middle-aged. They have a year or 2 of college education but no degree. They are buying their home. They live with 1 or 2 other people, and have 2 pets. They speak English. They are protestant. They work in retail sales. They have an IQ of 100. They make $38,000/year. They are overweight. They are heterosexual. They have been married at least once, but may or may not be single now (50/50 split)
While all of that is statistically true, I don't know a single person that all of those are true for.
Statistics are for describing populations not individuals.
Yet we are faced with stereotypes, assumptions, classifications about ourselves, about who we are, about how we choose to live or not to live, about what we are interested in, should be interested in, should want to buy, to read, to listen to and the silly corporations that are leading this drive to define, are trying to make choices for me, trying to lead me by the nose to buy their product--they have no idea who I am.
So, here you go. I am a white, middle-aged female. I have way to much college and have several paid off student loans to prove it. I have never been in retail sales. I do own my own home. I don't live with 1-2 other people, but do live with more than 2 beasties. I'm not protestant. I have never even met anyone that actually had an IQ of 100 (a stat for sure, but not a person), and do not make $38,000/year. I do live in the same state I was born in.
I'm as average as the next person.
Don't send me republican donation invites just because I'm from a red state. Over 40% of my state is blue or independent. Don't keep trying to sign me up for a web-based college degree in marketing, business, or medical assisting and please don't begin the conversation with "you requested information about our school". I didn't. Don't keep inviting me to follow and like Walmart. Don't try to buy my house fast for cash. Don't offer me a deal on the latest diet book or plan.
I also don't want to reorganize my closet, purge to simplicity, shop with coupons to save big money, or receive the beer of the month or the rose of the month or the plate of the month. I know what I need to purchase. I know were to find it. And if, by some chance I decide I need something I have never had or needed before---I understand the Google search pretty well.
My life is not your business, it's personal.
You can not pigeon hole my vote because of my age or my sex or even my registered party.
Statistics may tell you a lot about a population, but they tell you nothing about an individual.
The average American was born in the same state they live now. They are white. They are slightly more likely to be female. They are middle-aged. They have a year or 2 of college education but no degree. They are buying their home. They live with 1 or 2 other people, and have 2 pets. They speak English. They are protestant. They work in retail sales. They have an IQ of 100. They make $38,000/year. They are overweight. They are heterosexual. They have been married at least once, but may or may not be single now (50/50 split)
While all of that is statistically true, I don't know a single person that all of those are true for.
Statistics are for describing populations not individuals.
Yet we are faced with stereotypes, assumptions, classifications about ourselves, about who we are, about how we choose to live or not to live, about what we are interested in, should be interested in, should want to buy, to read, to listen to and the silly corporations that are leading this drive to define, are trying to make choices for me, trying to lead me by the nose to buy their product--they have no idea who I am.
So, here you go. I am a white, middle-aged female. I have way to much college and have several paid off student loans to prove it. I have never been in retail sales. I do own my own home. I don't live with 1-2 other people, but do live with more than 2 beasties. I'm not protestant. I have never even met anyone that actually had an IQ of 100 (a stat for sure, but not a person), and do not make $38,000/year. I do live in the same state I was born in.
I'm as average as the next person.
Don't send me republican donation invites just because I'm from a red state. Over 40% of my state is blue or independent. Don't keep trying to sign me up for a web-based college degree in marketing, business, or medical assisting and please don't begin the conversation with "you requested information about our school". I didn't. Don't keep inviting me to follow and like Walmart. Don't try to buy my house fast for cash. Don't offer me a deal on the latest diet book or plan.
I also don't want to reorganize my closet, purge to simplicity, shop with coupons to save big money, or receive the beer of the month or the rose of the month or the plate of the month. I know what I need to purchase. I know were to find it. And if, by some chance I decide I need something I have never had or needed before---I understand the Google search pretty well.
My life is not your business, it's personal.
THE KARMA OF WAR
CALLING OURSELVES THE GOOD GUYS, THE HEROES, THE WHITE HATS, WHEN DO WE RECOGNIZE OUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DEATH TOLLS, THE REBELLIONS, AND THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT OUR TACTICS HAVE BROUGHT TO THE CIVILIANS OF OTHER NATIONS AND TO OUR OWN PEOPLE.
The United States currently has military personnel on 800 military bases in other countries. No other country has bases in as many foreign lands as the United States.
World armies, in order of number of personnel is: (*rounded to the nearest thousand)
China--2,333,000 (this is the bear that our president elect is currently poking)
USA--1,492,000
India--1,325,000 (apparently we should stop acting like they are just workers at call centers)
North Korea--1,190,000 (most likely to do something unexpected)
Russia--845,000 (Our new ally?--oops--was our ally in the previous world war, also)
Pakistan--643,000 (I had no idea, I thought they were little and disorganized)
Turkey--510,000 (I thought they were tribal)
Vietnam--482,000 (a familiar name here, both halves now apparently on the same side)
Egypt--438,000 (do they like us?)
Burma--406,000 (What?)
Thailand--360,000
Brazil--318,000
Taiwan--290,000
Iraq--271,000
Mexico--270,000
Ukraine--250,000
Japan--247,000
Saudi Arabia--233,000
France--222,000
Germany--186,000
Afghanistan--185,000
Israel--176,000
United Kingdom--169,000
Bangladesh--157,000
Greece--143,000
Phillipines--125,000
Syria--125,000
Jordan--100,000
Of those countries, nine have nuclear capability:
Russia, USA, Israel, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, and North Korea. We don't know that anyone else has the ability to not just blow us all up but ruin it for everyone's future. Our intelligence doesn't say they do. But you know, what we don't know, we don't know.
We do know that when it comes to spending on defense--that strangely incestuous military-industrial complex born of world wars and the industrial age has made the USA a winner. Spending by nation, in order of most money spent:
USA--596 billion
China--215 billion
Saudi Arabia--87 billion
Russia--66 billion
UK--55 billion
India--51 billion
France--50 billion
Japan--40 billion
Germany--39 billion
Brazil--24 billion
Iraq--21 billion
Israel--18 billion
Hopefully, we weren't buying $1250 hammers and $50,000 toilets.
There is a lot of money in WAR. Eleven Fortune 500 companies are in defense/aerospace industry. Many of them got there during WWII. Lockheed/Martin, general Dynamics, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, Precisions Cast Parts, Huntington Ingalls, Spirit Aerosystems Holdings, United Technologies, Textron. And these don't include those smaller companies--making uniforms, making boots, making MRE's, making all the little pieces and parts that it takes to keep an army (or air force or navy or marine) outfitted, trained, housed, and equipped).
Amazingly small amounts of that money are paid to the men and women that are serving. At least 2,000 of our lower ranked families qualify for SNAP benefits. Shades of Walmart business Methods.
AMERICAN WAR DEATHS,
The American Revolution had about 4,435 deaths, 217,000 fighting, or about 113deaths per100,000 total population.
The War of 1812 had about 2,260 deaths, 286,730 fighting, or about 31 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Mexican War had about 13,283 deaths, 78,718 fighting, or about 78 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Civil War had about 618,0020 deaths (we were both sides of this war), about 3,263,363 fighting or 1,965 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Spanish American War had 2,449 deaths, 306,760 fighting, or about 4 deaths per 100,000 total population.
WWI had 116,516 deaths, 4,734,991 fighting or about 126 deaths per 100,000 total population
WWII had 405,399 death, 16,112,566 fighting or 307 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Korean War had 36,574 deaths, 1,789,000 fighting or 24 deaths per 100,000 total population
The Vietnam War (?) had 58,220 deaths, 3,403,000 or 32 deaths per total population.
The Gulf War had 383 deaths, 694,550 fighting or 0 deaths per total population. (the number is too small for the total to actually equal 1, we all no that 383 people are not 0 people)
The Iraq/Afghanistan War (still going on--maybe forever) has had 6,607 deaths--so far, 2,500,000+ fighting or 2 deaths per 100,000 total population
There are lots of numbers out there (but not matching numbers) for the number of civilian noncombatants killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The smallest combined those 2 with Pakistan and they listed 210,000 (this is less than 1/2 of the largest estimates). This is not military personnel or rebels or terrorists. It's children, sick people, old people, women--and doesn't include the people that die of malnutrition due to destroyed supply lines or chronic illness deaths due to no more healthcare system or deaths of people that are injured or poisoned by infrastructure damage. It should also be considered that when there is war, the government is destabilized, crime goes up and human services are disrupted. We mourn our less than 7,000 soldier deaths, but can't figure out why ISIS is gathering up converts so successfully.
We went to this war over civilian deaths from terrorist acts.
We have lost 3,158 civilians to terrorism on US soil since 1995. We are terrified, horrified, and angry about terrorism.
They have lost at least 210,000 from 3 countries--at least.
At Least!
Since 2001!
We should all worry about the Karma of that.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and PEACE OUT.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/4/#version:static
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Ephemeral life
Stray cats, dead babies, mayfly poems, dead young warriors, dying--life goes on.
I am currently feeding a momma cat and supplementing a multitude of kittens, now grown and of various ages.
She is a tiny little calico, and when she is not hiding in her baby kitten place, she comes to visit. She is both friendly and brave and when the kittens can walk well enough to follow, they too will come to my porch to supplement their food supply and take a drink when it is dry--all the time these days.
Right now, she comes once a day for food and drink, teats hanging, wrapping around my ankle. The 2 from her previous litter that survived to self-sufficiency have a little temporary house my daughter built. The permanent one is not quite done. Call it a safe house or a refuge from the harshness of nature.
I have never been able to get close to any of her offspring. She is like the momma killdeer that drags her wing to lead the danger away from her nest. Red squirrels also distract, but considering how fast her kittens run from me, she must truly feel she is bearding a monster in its den.
I also put out my scraps for the passing possums and raccoons, occasional an armadilla or skunk and when there were strays and coyotes--instead we now hear frequent gunfire in the spring instead of the multi-pitched yodelling of new coyote pups--I would periodically see one of them eating or drinking also.
When she first starts bringing them over, there are frequently 3 or 4. I never know how many she gave birth to. But eventually the number will decrease first to 2-3 then 1-2. The first ones, grown now, still come by, not as often but certainly as skittish when they arrive.
She always seems a little lost when one is missing. But she herds those still present with an increased vigor.
I buy food because I can't imagine how hard her life is, and how she is always attentive to babies and always brave about getting between them and me or a dog, or a raccoon, or another cat.
I don't know that I could continue to be that brave.
I remember a poem about the mayfly when I was a child. I google it and am buried in mayfly poems. Mayflies are archetypal to humans, apparently. I must admit, the poems are all good, just as thought-provoking. Making me feel as ephemeral as a--mayfly.
If you ever go to a cemetery and see the grave of a baby or small child, and feel sad, sad even though the grave has been there over 100 years and the child, if it hadn't died would still be dead, and realized--its not just death. We want everyone to have a chance to live. I think that is what makes the mayfly so thought-provoking--3 years in the ground, then one day to awaken, fly, mate, and die. ONE DAY!
What expectations would I have if I knew it must all occur in one day?
I expect years. I'm getting old and still expect years. I still have things to do, goals to reach, experiences to experience.
And yet our young ones, the ones that expect to live forever and ever unending, sign up to go fight for our country, or their country or some ideal or some cause without once thinking--"am I ready to die". "Why am I risking such an early death?" "Why am I risking never knowing my children or grandchildren."
I like to think they are trying to be like the brave momma cat. (I wish I believed those ideals were as important as babies)
I hope someone is trying to protect them from the harshness of human nature.
I am currently feeding a momma cat and supplementing a multitude of kittens, now grown and of various ages.
She is a tiny little calico, and when she is not hiding in her baby kitten place, she comes to visit. She is both friendly and brave and when the kittens can walk well enough to follow, they too will come to my porch to supplement their food supply and take a drink when it is dry--all the time these days.
Right now, she comes once a day for food and drink, teats hanging, wrapping around my ankle. The 2 from her previous litter that survived to self-sufficiency have a little temporary house my daughter built. The permanent one is not quite done. Call it a safe house or a refuge from the harshness of nature.
I have never been able to get close to any of her offspring. She is like the momma killdeer that drags her wing to lead the danger away from her nest. Red squirrels also distract, but considering how fast her kittens run from me, she must truly feel she is bearding a monster in its den.
I also put out my scraps for the passing possums and raccoons, occasional an armadilla or skunk and when there were strays and coyotes--instead we now hear frequent gunfire in the spring instead of the multi-pitched yodelling of new coyote pups--I would periodically see one of them eating or drinking also.
When she first starts bringing them over, there are frequently 3 or 4. I never know how many she gave birth to. But eventually the number will decrease first to 2-3 then 1-2. The first ones, grown now, still come by, not as often but certainly as skittish when they arrive.
She always seems a little lost when one is missing. But she herds those still present with an increased vigor.
I buy food because I can't imagine how hard her life is, and how she is always attentive to babies and always brave about getting between them and me or a dog, or a raccoon, or another cat.
I don't know that I could continue to be that brave.
I remember a poem about the mayfly when I was a child. I google it and am buried in mayfly poems. Mayflies are archetypal to humans, apparently. I must admit, the poems are all good, just as thought-provoking. Making me feel as ephemeral as a--mayfly.
If you ever go to a cemetery and see the grave of a baby or small child, and feel sad, sad even though the grave has been there over 100 years and the child, if it hadn't died would still be dead, and realized--its not just death. We want everyone to have a chance to live. I think that is what makes the mayfly so thought-provoking--3 years in the ground, then one day to awaken, fly, mate, and die. ONE DAY!
What expectations would I have if I knew it must all occur in one day?
I expect years. I'm getting old and still expect years. I still have things to do, goals to reach, experiences to experience.
And yet our young ones, the ones that expect to live forever and ever unending, sign up to go fight for our country, or their country or some ideal or some cause without once thinking--"am I ready to die". "Why am I risking such an early death?" "Why am I risking never knowing my children or grandchildren."
I like to think they are trying to be like the brave momma cat. (I wish I believed those ideals were as important as babies)
I hope someone is trying to protect them from the harshness of human nature.
Monday, November 28, 2016
building the world our grandchildren will live in
My grandfather was born in 1876.
My father was born in 1918.
I was born in 1956.
My daughter was born in 1986.
My granddaughter was born in 2006.
My grandchildren are born. Five generations in 125 years.
The world I was born into looks nothing like the world my grandfather was born into.
What will the world my grandchildren will die in look like?
Now, that's a question?
With current expectations, they should both live past 2075--quite a bit past that.
I would love for them to have a future with close family, lots of outdoor time in places that are peaceful and beautiful and teaming with a plethora of species of animals and plants. I would have them eating plentiful, healthy food and living in homes that are both safe and affordable and convenient and maintainable. I would have them healthy, wealthy, and wise. But not too wealthy. I don't want them to ever feel that they must have more than everyone else to be successful and happy. And not too unwealthy--as that is a stress that leads to soooo many problems, stress illnesses, mental illness, chemical dependency, and that nightmarish existence that involves pushing themselves to always compete, beat, be better than, make more money than, have a bigger career, a better marriage, a more impressive resume--always more, even after the original lack is gone. The never reachable carrot is not the answer to happiness. Everyone wants their loved ones to be healthy--even as they watch them make unhealthy choices. I guess I want them to have those choices--not be forced into a lack of health by poverty, environmental contamination and ignorance. And Wisdom--everyone is on their own on that one.
It is projected there will be just under 9 billion people by 2075 (it is currently slightly over 7 billion) and that Nigeria will have more people than the United States. While the human population of the whole planet is slowing, the 12 countries resulting in that almost 2 billion increase will be in Africa and Asia. The United states is only expected to grow about 2% and the US birth rate is expected to decline to about 0.2%. That is a lot of couples choosing not to have children. So my grandchildren are less likely to have children or grandchildren than I was.
Sea level should be about 34 inches higher than it is right now. Since my house is about 600 feet above and a 1000 miles from any sea, seems safe enough. But moving to the coasts may not be an option for them, or perhaps they will just need to stay back a few hundred miles when they buy that sea side property.
My state will be about 13 degrees hotter on average--so pleasant winter and roaring hot summer--123 degrees in the August shade, anyone????
It is expected that climate change impacts alone—hurricane damage (currently less than 12 billion/year but projected at 142 billion by 2075),real estate losses( currently less than 34 billion/year but projected at 173 billion by 2075), energy costs ( currently at less than 28 billion/year but projected at 82 billion by 2075) , and water costs (currently less than 250 billion/year but projected at 565 billion by 2075)—will come with a price tag of 1.8
percent of the U.S. GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually (in today’s dollars) by 2100. Fortunately, for those of us in the middle of the country, we won't see so much of that--it will be a coastal, southwest thing.
So far, all I predict is a return of all those rural families to the farmland. Of course, all those giant metropolitan areas were also once farmland, so while we won't be growing as fast, we definitely won't be growing out. Skyscraper apartments in Kansas-anyone? (what? tornados? what?)
http://www.global-warming-forecasts.com/
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/cost.pdf
Forecasts from 2015 to 2100 illuminate converging trajectories, potentially colliding events, which will compound multiple stress events and create information gaps about the availability of remedial resources and assets.
For example:
There have been a lot of predictions about the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_100_Years
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a3120/110-predictions-for-the-next-110-years/
http://www.sylviabrowne.com/g/The-Next-100-Years/172.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16536598
https://youthextension.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/predictions-for-the-next-100-years/
https://dailyreckoning.com/a-prediction-for-the-next-100-years/
and so on and so on eternally.
They are interesting and range from the Rapture (always in every century's predictions among the devout christians) to utopia on earth (picture the artwork of the watchtower pamplets) to dystopias so sinister not even Gaspar Noe could do it justice on the big screen in 3-D in whatever is juicier than Technicolor.
So what can I do to make sure they still have a place on this earth? How can I make sure that if they have children or don't have children, it is their choice?
What kind of world do I want us to build to leave to them?
I want them free and able to participate fully in their own governance.
I want them to be treated as well as any other person on the planet--equal opportunity, equal justice, equal voice.
I definitely don't want them worse off than we are now and would really like it if their world was better---for everyone.
Any suggestions on how to get there from here?
It's closer than we think. The last 60 years went by in a flash.
My father was born in 1918.
I was born in 1956.
My daughter was born in 1986.
My granddaughter was born in 2006.
My grandchildren are born. Five generations in 125 years.
The world I was born into looks nothing like the world my grandfather was born into.
What will the world my grandchildren will die in look like?
Now, that's a question?
With current expectations, they should both live past 2075--quite a bit past that.
I would love for them to have a future with close family, lots of outdoor time in places that are peaceful and beautiful and teaming with a plethora of species of animals and plants. I would have them eating plentiful, healthy food and living in homes that are both safe and affordable and convenient and maintainable. I would have them healthy, wealthy, and wise. But not too wealthy. I don't want them to ever feel that they must have more than everyone else to be successful and happy. And not too unwealthy--as that is a stress that leads to soooo many problems, stress illnesses, mental illness, chemical dependency, and that nightmarish existence that involves pushing themselves to always compete, beat, be better than, make more money than, have a bigger career, a better marriage, a more impressive resume--always more, even after the original lack is gone. The never reachable carrot is not the answer to happiness. Everyone wants their loved ones to be healthy--even as they watch them make unhealthy choices. I guess I want them to have those choices--not be forced into a lack of health by poverty, environmental contamination and ignorance. And Wisdom--everyone is on their own on that one.
It is projected there will be just under 9 billion people by 2075 (it is currently slightly over 7 billion) and that Nigeria will have more people than the United States. While the human population of the whole planet is slowing, the 12 countries resulting in that almost 2 billion increase will be in Africa and Asia. The United states is only expected to grow about 2% and the US birth rate is expected to decline to about 0.2%. That is a lot of couples choosing not to have children. So my grandchildren are less likely to have children or grandchildren than I was.
Sea level should be about 34 inches higher than it is right now. Since my house is about 600 feet above and a 1000 miles from any sea, seems safe enough. But moving to the coasts may not be an option for them, or perhaps they will just need to stay back a few hundred miles when they buy that sea side property.
My state will be about 13 degrees hotter on average--so pleasant winter and roaring hot summer--123 degrees in the August shade, anyone????
It is expected that climate change impacts alone—hurricane damage (currently less than 12 billion/year but projected at 142 billion by 2075),real estate losses( currently less than 34 billion/year but projected at 173 billion by 2075), energy costs ( currently at less than 28 billion/year but projected at 82 billion by 2075) , and water costs (currently less than 250 billion/year but projected at 565 billion by 2075)—will come with a price tag of 1.8
percent of the U.S. GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually (in today’s dollars) by 2100. Fortunately, for those of us in the middle of the country, we won't see so much of that--it will be a coastal, southwest thing.
So far, all I predict is a return of all those rural families to the farmland. Of course, all those giant metropolitan areas were also once farmland, so while we won't be growing as fast, we definitely won't be growing out. Skyscraper apartments in Kansas-anyone? (what? tornados? what?)
http://www.global-warming-forecasts.com/
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/cost.pdf
Forecasts from 2015 to 2100 illuminate converging trajectories, potentially colliding events, which will compound multiple stress events and create information gaps about the availability of remedial resources and assets.
For example:
- Disease rates ( think Zika, and other mosquito vectored illnesses, ebola--considered tropical only, asthma, heat-stroke, water infestations like algae and protozoa) extreme weather events (hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, snowstorms, droughts and floods) and heat wave forecasts (forest fires, outdoor workers collapsing in summer, poor people without air conditioners, old people without air conditioners being found with hyperthermia too late to fix) presented alongside forecasts of skilled workforce availability and the capacity to meet demand for health, medical and first-responder emergency services.( In this state, which chose not to take the federal medicaid expansion, there are still over 20% of the population without coverage. What will happen in the next few years remains to be seen. In hospitals that are already strained, financially and a current promise to do away with the affordable care act, we may be facing a future of more closures of facilities in the face of more people needing care.)
- Projections of hospital and medical personnel shortages (already a reality and not getting better with healthcare going more toward for-profit conglomerates and away from community services are occurring concurrently with heat wave induced power outages and water shortages. If you have ever been in a hospital or even a nursing home with the power or water turned off, even 2 hours is a dangerous nightmare of trying to maintain patient safety.
- Water demand strains from droughts occurring simultaneously with wildfire mobilization and suppression efforts that drain water from reservoirs dedicated to meeting fresh drinking water and agriculture requirements endangering both human dwelling and the habitat of all other life in that area.
- Grid, energy and water infrastructure expansion forecasts juxtaposed to forecasts competing for the availability of sufficient-sized workforce resources for infrastructure construction, repair and maintenance--not to mention the resistance to taxes, to resistance to paying people a living wage makes fixing and maintaining our infrastructure daunting.
- Food shortages alongside forecasts of feedstocks and raw materials for fertilizers necessary to meet food demands will make the purchase of basic foods as expensive as housing and healthcare (we may just cure that gross, Mall-rat consumerism after all and being overweight may once again become a sign of wealth.
- Critical and raw materials availability forecasts overlaid on projections for clean technology markets and the greenhouse gas control technologies required to mitigate and adapt to climate change will create a balancing act.
- Technology commercialization progress and market penetration forecasts juxtaposed to accelerating climate change impact forecasts? Who will win? I guess it will depend on how fast we start gasping for air or losing people en masse to dehydration.
There have been a lot of predictions about the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_100_Years
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a3120/110-predictions-for-the-next-110-years/
http://www.sylviabrowne.com/g/The-Next-100-Years/172.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16536598
https://youthextension.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/predictions-for-the-next-100-years/
https://dailyreckoning.com/a-prediction-for-the-next-100-years/
and so on and so on eternally.
They are interesting and range from the Rapture (always in every century's predictions among the devout christians) to utopia on earth (picture the artwork of the watchtower pamplets) to dystopias so sinister not even Gaspar Noe could do it justice on the big screen in 3-D in whatever is juicier than Technicolor.
So what can I do to make sure they still have a place on this earth? How can I make sure that if they have children or don't have children, it is their choice?
What kind of world do I want us to build to leave to them?
I want them free and able to participate fully in their own governance.
I want them to be treated as well as any other person on the planet--equal opportunity, equal justice, equal voice.
I definitely don't want them worse off than we are now and would really like it if their world was better---for everyone.
Any suggestions on how to get there from here?
It's closer than we think. The last 60 years went by in a flash.
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