Help save Masha and other bears from bear baiting.....

Masha, an 11 year old bear retired from a life in a traveling circus based in Moscow, Russia, is now being used  in a camp as "bear bait" for training dogs to hunt bear in the wild. Bears at these camps are often kept on a short chain and are defenseless because they have had their teeth and claws removed so they do not hurt the dogs.

These camps, (or parks), in Russia are called "Pritravochnye stations" -there are about ten parks trainings dogs in Moscow region and Masha is at one called TTS Fryazevo. There are hundreds of these parks throughout Russia operating legally, because there are no laws prohibiting them from operating.

Pritravochnye stations train hunting dogs to hunt bear, fox, racoons, badgers, and other animals. The hunted animal is savagely mauled to death by the teeth of trained hunting dogs. This barbaric cruelty results in a slow and painful death, with immeasurable suffering as terrified animals having their flesh torn at and ripped apart by trained hunting dogs.

Video (Warning- Graphic)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK8BnJf9A3c

We ask for the confiscation and rescue of Masha, the 11 year old bear from this barbarically cruel Pritravochnye station and that directors of such operations be charged with animal cruelty.

Russian Presidential Executive Office
Vladimir Putin
23, Ilyinka Street,
Moscow, 103132, Russia
Contact: http://eng.letters.kremlin.ru/

The great disconnect....

…or pardon me, but I’m going to get down and dirty with my feelings here for just a minute.

So, I was talking to Nameless on the phone the other day.  He’s someone I haven’t seen in years, but someone with whom I thought I had a nice family relationship.  Over the phone, joke-telling and story-sharing and commiserations and congratulations….stuff like that.

We’ve never been super close, as I’m a girl, he’s a guy, more than 7 years separate us and other than when we were both at home and intermittent house-mates and town-mates, we’ve lived apart.  He’s a conservative Baptist.  I’m a liberal Pagan.  He’s married and lives in the east with his conservative Baptist wife.  I’m married and live in Texas with my liberal Buddhist husband, and we are activist types.  Nameless watches sports and she reads.  We don’t go to church.  They go to church and Sunday School and have their class pray for “God’s best for me,” which is to say at one point 7 or 8 years back, they were garnering prayers for the dissolution of my relationship with my Buddhist best friend/lover/husband/soulmate.

Anyway, our conversation was about stuff that has been happening in his life and it went so far as to enter choppy waters, shall we say.  Approach with caution.  There be dragons.  You know, one of those hairpin-curve, sharp-left-turn, ohmygods look-out-you’re-about-to-run-this-thing-off-a-freakin’-cliff kinda conversations that develop and before I could say “boyhowdy” he was asking me “Do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and have you confessed your sins and asked him into your heart?  Because, you know you’re a filthy-rags sinner.”  (Well, he left out the filthy rags, but just barely.)

Sigh.  I informed him that I had not changed my theology or my beliefs along life’s way.  I still felt the same, and perhaps he just hadn’t asked or been paying close enough attention.  Can you say, “Not the answer he was looking for?”  Well, the conversation ended with him in a huff and with me thinking, “I think this just might be the very last time I’ll ever talk to Nameless.  Wow.”

Long story short, I’ve come to believe a couple of things that really should NOT have taken me a lifetime to figure out.  Duhhhh….

1. When someone says you don’t really know who they are, you don’t.  However, you may have been telling yourself that all the stuff other people warned you about regarding that person could be ignored.  Instead of reading the handwriting on the wall, you’ve been using your Mr. Clean eraser and have been kidding yourself about it all.  You’ve been ignoring the dinging bells and flashing lights thinking you knew better.  FAIL.
2. When someone tells you there’s a great disconnect, just cut to the chase.  Take their word for it and just never you mind.  Fewer regrettable words will have been uttered and you won’t be left reeling.  You won’t wake up in the night from bad dreams wondering HTH did you miss that?!!  You’ll not be as sad, because you won’t have allowed Nameless to say all that rot.  For crying out loud, if you stop it before it gets into the choppy waters, you won’t have allowed the words to hit you like a 2x4 up side the head and leave you wondering whattheheck was that all about?!!
3. You won’t spend the next 2 or 3 days stopping mid-thought and having to do a facepalm when something from way back when comes jumping into the mental vision field and you’re going, “Ohhhhhhhhhh……” and feeling stupid that you’ve let them get away with that thing all these years.  You won’t be embarrassed all over again for being so STUPID and FORGIVING of what really shouldn’t have been allowed by people who were supposed to care about you more than that.
4. And my gods, when someone says to you, “We’re supposed to love you, but we don’t have to like you,” hang up the damn phone and call it a day.  Period.

Funny.  Nameless used to say this about relationships, and turns out, it applies.

“I’d rather want something I don’t have than have something I don’t want.”

Yeah.

Shawn
****
(Nameless:  Just somebody I’m allowing to remain anonymous, because I’m nice like that.)

My thanks to my husband, SGTex.  His encouragement and editing skills gave me what I needed to write this.  xoxoxo

Remembering Rachel....

....who left this life this morning, makes me want to post some thoughts I have on the blog, but I'll keep them to myself for now and share these words from another wise Rachel.


"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of Nature ~ the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. Those who dwell…among the beauties and mysteries of the Earth are never alone or weary of life. The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the Universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."




~ Rachel Carson


hoto: Alatna River Valley, Gates of the Arctic

by Michael Christopher Brown, National Geographic

photo and quote combination from the Spiritual Ecology Facebook page

Revering the Universe. Caring for Nature. Celebrating Life.
Join the World Pantheist Movement!
www.pantheism.net
www.facebook.com/groups/2230619808/
http://community.pantheism.net/

Shawn, a Pantheist
****

I have a dream....

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

~ The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Saturday morning....

....and I'm sitting here at the desk drinking coffee.  It's not as good as when SGTex (my personal barista) makes it and brings it to me in bed, but it will do.  I made it strong and very black.  Or is it black and very strong?  It's hot, is what it is.  And it's hot outside, too.

I let the pups out into the back yard this morning and they ran around and had their conversation with Willie Nelson, the neighbor's gigantic bloodhound.  I say "gigantic" because Willie has been known to stand on his hind legs at the fence and look SGTex straight in the eye.  And bite.  Bless his heart, he's a good dog and is left on his own so much, he can't help himself.  He makes that bloodhoundish noise, whatever it is, when he's lonely, and he seems to be lonely most of the time.  Our two Havanese seem to get along nicely with him and they do keep each other company from time to time.

In other outdoor dog news, where there once was only one squirrel, now there are two.  That makes for a more interesting adventure for Sebastian, who is a regular on squirrel patrol.  Seamus seems to ignore them.  The reason I mentioned that it is hot out there is that I saw Seamus check out the bird bath for a drink this morning.  We have a lovely, old, concrete double-tiered birdbath under one of the pecan trees and it's quite picturesque.  The cuteness factor when he stands up and looks there for a drink is pretty darn high.  Anyway, the dogs are back in the house to cool off and wait for the mail carrier, and Willie is back being sad again.  I do think the Havanese really make his day.

Which brings me to what just might be my point, this morning.  Someone on Facebook posted about how what he had said to someone else in their own language (he and his son are globe-trotters) brought a big smile, and I thought about how wonderful that was.  It made her day.  Then someone else came along and posted about their day having been made by another's kindness, and I thought about how that really could be the point of getting up in the morning....making someone else's day.  We do like our day being made.  (Hey, that's a funny expression, isn't it?!  I'm thinking Clint Eastwood, here.  No, not quite.)

It actually is one of the many wonderful things that make my day when SGTex brings coffee.  There's quite a lot to that, and I won't go into details, but it gives me something nice to think about when he's gone to work for several days at a time and I'm here having my days made by my pair of little Havapups and friends in far away places.....

C'mon!  Go out and make someone's day.  Or, just stay in and do it right here and now.

As my Man says, "Fly, little electrons...."

Shawn
****

Misleading religion fuels the Texas creationist machine

(Sneak preview:  This column submitted today to the San Angelo Standard-Times.) 

Just finished surfing the web a bit to check, and science has not yet come back with anything on what makes the right wing so cussed and so brainless.  We are going to have to be patient.  But this, our Texas, is most certainly the laboratory for it.  As Paul Jury explains, “Everything is bigger, even our morons.”  

Math skills and U.S. history aside, boneheadedness in our state government is most glaringly and tragically evident in the area of science.  Recent efforts of our state legislature and governor to put a brutal sharia on women’s health highlighted this deficit, as does a tireless spite-fest to undermine and defund the beneficent Affordable Care Act.   

By the same right-wing Republican token, we might expect the willful ignorance of climate-change denial to flourish where so much wealth comes of raping the earth night and day. 

Such pandering by sold-out politicians invariably includes an obsequious connection to Christian fundamentalism, so it’s little wonder they grapple and contend with our having rights based on the values of humanism and instead churn out the toxic products of spiritual darkness.

Buddhism identifies the “three poisons” involved:  Anger (meanness), greed and stupidity.  We all have some of this blend in us, of course; there is help for it in the light of a good religion, but a bad religion can only make things worse.

There is in Texas a perennial skirmish within false religion’s war on science that is at least as embarrassing and tiresome as the crimes mentioned above.  I refer to the State Board of Education’s commitment to the abject folly of Bible creationism. 

My earliest opinion letters to the San Angelo Standard-Times addressed this, way back in the 1980s.  In those days, busybodies Mel and Norma Gabler of Longview lobbied the Textbook Selection Committee to considerable unfortunate effect, but from that zany endeavor – perhaps ironically – there has been descent with modification and development of an antievolution cadre of some diabolical sophistication. 

According to the Texas Freedom Network, of six prominent creationists invited to review biology textbooks and influence their publication for Texas and America, some even have doctorates – and one of those is in molecular and cell biology!  (Never mind how a man can hold such a degree and retain in his heart an animosity for science; a zealous handful are apparently able to accomplish the contortion.) 

Only half of the half-dozen are engineers (traditionally a discipline overutilized as “scientists” of creationism), to include a Baptist university’s professor of engineering, a chemical engineer who’s a business instructor, and a systems network engineer. 

There may be a Christian schoolteacher or two, and then it made this ol’ Aggie hang his head to learn that a chemistry prof from A&M has made himself available to the quixotic contingent.  They all probably will reflect some grudging advancement over the “dinosaurs-walked-with-men” sect and aggressively favor the euphemism, “intelligent design.”    

But even these champions of the fantasy could not effect serious destruction.  The danger to science education comes from the 60% of high school teachers identified in a notable study ([Berman, Michael and Plutzer, Eric.  "Defeating Creationism in the Courtroom, But Not in the Classroom," Science 28 January 2011) as "cautious," i.e., prefer to avoid lending their support to “either view.”  It is these brave souls who are really working for the creationists, since they allow fervor to trump knowledge and effect a de facto "balanced treatment" in their classrooms.

Bleating platitudes about “both sides” only gives aid to the creationist dream of having a leg to stand on.

SGTex

****

The Cosmos apparently believes in reincarnation....

                                                                                    

Felt called to respond to John Ankerburg’s commentary today:  “An increasing number of people now believe in some form of reincarnation. The idea that after death we can return to life once again in a higher form has gained widespread appeal. But what does the Bible say?” 

The Bible is not without reincarnation-friendly implications, but hey.  What does a rational and scientific worldview say?  In my faith we apprehend a living universe characterized everywhere by cyclicity -- from waveform and subatomic orbital and spin through celestial orbits and the tides and seasons they mediate and, between these, our worlds of life featuring breath, pulse, brainwaves, cellular division, reproductive cycles, sleep and hibernation, the opening and closing of flowers, all this on and on ad infinitum.  If there is a word the vibrant universe shouts, it is "again."  Of all known phenomena, it is difficult to cite anything that happens but once; indeed, the mind-boggling multiplicity and abundance of stars, to say nothing of atoms, suggests a style and general rule consistent with reincarnation.  One can't fault a prescientific desert people for having a narrower point of view, since they had no idea of the vastness, nor of the nature of the cosmos.

 

SGTex

****

Photo borrowed from this uplifting Facebook page: The Mayan Ouroboros: The Cosmic Cycles Come Full Circle

So, I was on Facebook and....

....I was friended by someone in Europe and stopped by their wall to say hello.  As I was looking around, I came across a wonderful post with pictures of what someone else had accomplished.  Some hard work and creativity and environmental consciousness factored in to this project and they had shared about it all, graciously allowing strangers like me to have a glimpse inside their life.  I was reading comments of others, and sure enough, there were those who insisted on saying something critical and down-putting.  Happily, some nice folks came along to scold and add their two bits of encouragement to the original poster. 

Why can’t people assume the best and be positive when someone is sharing new ideas of something about themselves?  What makes a person come along and be the “wet blanket” or have something sneering or critical to say, anyway?  Honestly, I don't appreciate it when I post something I consider to be beautiful or happy and someone considers it their opportunity to be grumpy.  LOL!!!

Well, I had an incident the other evening, again on Facebook.  It’s become a fairly well-known fact that I am pro-President Obama.  I don’t like it when I post something about the POTUS or FLOTUS or present administration in the White House, and people come along and have nasty things to say.  No name-calling, please.  Go ahead and offer an idea that might conflict with mine or be more conservative than my liberal point of view, but don’t get profane or obscene and keep it light.  If it’s not time to get all controversial, then I’ll say something and invite you to back off.  Save it for your own post.  So, anyway, I had posted the meme that is pictured above, depicting the late Trayvon Martin’s attire being worn by President Obama.  This was posted on my wall in appreciation of what Pres. Obama had to say about Trayvon.  One person came along and offered an idea that I found interesting, and another person came along after that and started to discuss his ideas.  Person number 2 has been travelling the world with his son and oftentimes has some pretty critical things to say about the USA.  Oftentimes, expats are like that.  They get pretty verbal about what they don’t like “back home” and aren’t afraid to be scornful and downright anti-American.  Whatever.  I’m not one of those people.  When I travelled outside the USA, I missed it and was proud to call it home.  But that’s me, and I digress.  Anyway, the comments got heated and I vented my frustration at people coming along dissing the POTUS.  I vehemently IN ALL CAPS made my point and….you guessed it.  First commenter felt compelled to argue and get huffy with me.  I got huffy right back, and he told me off.  I told him off right back.  How did he retaliate?  He unfriended both me and my husband.  (boo hoo, eyeroll)  Just as well, because it’s not nice for single guys to tell off wives of married guys.  LOL!!!

Whatever.

Aren’t people funny?  Sometimes, not so much.  

Shawn

****

My letter to...

.... a local paper:

Contemporary medical science describes the continuum of gestation in complete detail and those who accept this eminently valid knowledge will be familiar with the words “zygote,” “embryo” and “fetus.” Antiabortion sentiment and commentary tend to avoid any reference to the first term and recognize the second and third but grudgingly. That is because awareness of the speck, blob or tadpole-like status of the earliest stages does not lend itself to shrill claims that termination represents “murder” of a “baby” or “child.”

Extremists in the Texas Legislature have embraced and emphasized the information that a fetus arguably develops sensation of pain by 20 weeks. Accordingly, they should be denied the convenience of discounting the reality that from 2 to about 12 weeks the tiny entity does not have a differentiated nervous system and so is absolutely without awareness or personality. This seriously undermines any rational argument that it is a person with rights.

The opinion that personhood and a right to life begin at conception is a religious one, so in a society of constitutional liberty it is not permissible to force such a view on the public through laws. I don’t see what is so hard to understand about this.

SGTex
****

Reply to Dr. H ....

I felt called to write a response to a fine guest column in the Standard-Times by a physician of our acquaintance, on religion. This was kindly printed today, if edited to leave out the doctor's name, as the SAST prefers not to "use the writer's name in rebuttals. This is to ensure that discussions revolve around issues and not individuals."

Concurring, will leave his name off here -- if permitted to mention that he is an outstanding, accomplished physician whose father was my father's doctor. Rebuttal perhaps, but meant to be respectful, my commentary:

“Buddhism doesn't go to war against exact scientific principles”

Dr. H’s column of May 30 replied to a rationalistic challenge to the Christian religion by offering assertions of plain presupposition that various divine events in the Bible really occurred. I respect his frankness and faith, but found little in such comments to satisfy a rational-humanist inquiry.

I took particular notice of Dr. H’s viewpoint because I recall conversation with his father on this very topic, years ago. He tried to help me understand how medical doctors can heartily believe events of the Books of Moses actually took place.

I see that to this day many physicians are Christian and, even more perplexing, some go as far as to embrace biblical literalism or inerrantism, i.e., the dogmatic province of creationist and fundamentalist denominations. Aren’t those the folks who scorn science? Germ theory, genetics, particle physics and – yes – evolution biology are integral to current medicine and incompatible with literalistic Bible belief.

Metaphysical/spiritual teachings, if they are sound, will not conflict with science and reason. Some of us are just not honestly able to accommodate the Bible’s reliance on myth and compromised logic.

Happily, there is Buddhism – the sovereign truths of which are ever corroborated by science, rather than undermined. More than other religious systems, this one entails pure and potent discernment of the true nature of reality. Buddhist teachings (as reverently systematized during 2,000 years through China toward Japan) set forth discrete principles, like a mystic physics or calculus.

Though gods, demons and miraculous phenomena abound in the sutras, a Buddhism of the present age identifies divine energies and functions of the cosmos in the light of an up-to-date understanding. Certainly there is appreciation for wisdom of ancient vintage, but no Buddhist with sense is about to go pitting the extravagant lore of 2,600 years ago against today’s high-confidence scientific knowledge.

A religion that is not dead will undergo development and adapt through the centuries, drawing gratefully on progress in human knowledge. In my particular sect, faith turns upon what is known about our connection to the living law of the universe – an improvement, I should hope, over faith measured by one’s capacity for believing unlikely things without proof.

For believers in Moses (who lived 700 years before the lawgiver Gautama Buddha), perhaps something of the profound primary reality is referenced in Exodus 3:14, when Man receives a title for invoking God: I AM THAT I AM. The fundamental law is not a result, not the effect of any prior cause, but a perfect and eternal singularity that contains its own purpose.

My faith tradition likens this sovereign absolute to the lotus, wherein flower and seed – which cause one another – appear at the same time. Sure enough, quarks have a similar arrangement, revealing how it might be that the intelligent design and the intelligence doing the designing are, as we Buddhists are fond of saying, “not two.”

Left to their own devices, quarks and leptons make the atom, a living engine of order that carries construction codes in its heart. From there, stellar birth-death cycles cook up the hundred elements out of just hydrogen and helium, ordaining the phenomenon we call chemistry. Thus, a basic proposition about forces and particles has been blueprint sufficient for all the intricacy and value we see around us, and all purpose. How wondrous!

SGTex
****
Photo credit:  Tom Hammang Photography

If that isn't nice....

....what is?

 The other day on Facebook somebody came along with a meme stating "If that isn't nice, what is?"  I thought some of my friends might have something to say about that.  Not too many obliged, but I'll post those that shared their thoughts.  I bet they thought I'd forgotten, heh heh.

I started it off:

"Me:  Dancing in the kitchen to rock-n-roll with the Havapups just a minute ago.

Sylvia:  Me with my head fixing to hit the pillow. Too easy. Ronnie and I sometimes call our bed "Betty" and we tell her we love her.  Or another one is, when Vanna see's me at the store when she is with her Mom and says "Grandma" and clings to me like a little monkey. It feels like we are one body when she holds me that tight. If that isn't nice I don't know what is!

Elizabeth:  A nice day at the beach, good book in hand, listening to the waves breaking, children laughing, and the gulls in flight.

Maureen:   Wrapped up in hubby's arms. The best place in the world.

Julia:  A lazy day curled up with the hubby and fur-kids... Feeling the love!"

I was hoping for more contributions, but perhaps people were bored with my stuff or just not in that sort of mood.  ;~)

Today's a big day around here, with all the Prop 8 and DOMA downfall happenings.  Texas has been rockin' and rollin' over some issues and Senator Wendy is a hero for many of us.  You can't get the liberals completely down for long, in spite of what the conservative fundamentalists like to think.  Hah.  Some people have a real funny definition of "equality" and mistake the Holy Bible for the Constitution.  Well, they're wrong.  Anyway,  it's all over the Internet, so I don't need to go into details here.  Suffice it to say that "politics" is what's for dinner in America.

It's hot and sunny out there, and I have boxes to pack and tomorrow's dinner to prepare.  The Mr is on his way home from work eventually, so I'd better get to gettin'.

Toodles ~

Shawn

****

A thought or two or three....

So, I'm sitting here listening to our music from the blog playlist.  I'm not so sure it's a great idea, since SGTex just took to the road for work and will be away for a few days.  If I listen too long, the songs are apt to make me crazy homesick for him ;~). 

What's been going on, lately?  We've been very busy with getting used to the new routine around here.  A 3-hour one-way roadtrip to get to work is something different, for sure.  The job is fun and he likes the people very much, so that's great.  Meanwhile, the Havanese and I keep ourselves busy and out of trouble, mostly ;~).  It's always a great day when the Mr comes home, and everybody goes to pieces!  Haha.  Since he just left, the pups are pouting.....

I've been keeping up with the bears.  The main focus for me this season is learning about the cubs, some of which are orphaned and being cared for by great people until they can be sent back into the forest.  It's fun to see them and their activities as they grow, but the joy that brings is tempered with the sadness of realizing that they're without their natural mothers.  People need to be more careful and slow down on country roads to watch out for bears, and please don't do stupid things which will orphan these sweet babies.....

What else is new?  Great news for special friends on a couple of continents is making June a happy month.  Another friend has suffered a huge loss and is dealing with tragedy.  Emotions high, emotions low....the love for these people is constant and I'm thankful that can be communicated via cyberspace.

Nothing else much to say, I guess.  Just a few rambling thoughts to drop off as I check in to see what's going on in the world of blog.  I hope everybody is having a good day or night and will make the most of the rest of the week.

Thanks for stopping by when you do. 

Namaste'........

Shawn
****

"There are many kinds of families...

....and Cheerios just wants to celebrate them all.” Meredith Tutterow,associate marketing director for Cheerios and Multigrain Cheerios at General Mills in Golden Valley, Minnesota


I was blessed to grow up in a place where an overt incident of racism was only exhibited by the occasional strange, ignorant people you read about in the paper or someone being really mean. Example: As a child I was accosted by 2 girls on... the playground who harrassed me with days of name-calling, so eventually, I lost my composure and name-called them back. I was the one who got in trouble for it. It was wrong and mean...of all of us. I was more wrong than they were, because I certainly and absolutely knew better. Was it the last time I ever called somebody a bad name? No, and I still feel guilty and sorry about that. Wouldn't you know it....now, as an adult there is nothing that bothers me more than name-calling...Such is my karma.


General Mills has a mixed race family featured on their latest commercial, and it's caused some unfortunate people to show their "true colors," so to speak.  The issue isn't exactly about name-calling, per se, but this is about racism. The effect is the same.

Rather than restrain myself, I do expect that the next time someone feels the need to mention someone's color or lack thereof (or any other unnecessary, extraneous and likely erroneous description) , I'm apt to just go off on them. 

Honestly, I can hardly wait for that opportunity....

Shawn
****
photo:  Dulce de Leche Cheerios® Parfaits recipe from Betty Crocker

Imagine....

I feel sorry for my fellow Americans who are so consumed with conservative sentiment that they vehemently oppose any form of gun control – in spite of a social situation that increasingly calls for it. I recently got the chance to browse a current copy of *American Rifleman*, journal of the unbalanced National Rifle Association – which cheap and pugnacious propaganda confirms our every apprehension about an organization that is in its way no less violence-prone than the KKK, Nazis types, etc., but dismayingly large and wealthy.


Had the Nation’s founders seen fit to mention a right of the people to keep and drive coaches and carriages, would a vocal segment of modern society have stood in impassioned and asinine opposition to driver licensing, vehicle registration and compulsory auto insurance?
I am, to put it mildly, skeptical of the far-right’s notion that we are a society careening toward ruin. Essentially they are promulgating the “wedge” or “slippery slope” argument (since they lack reasoned, good-faith arguments) that reasonable gun control today would soon result in government confiscating all guns and shooting us with them.

I love freedom as much as the next guy, but what good is the freedom to attend a movie if some loon is free to open fire on the theater? Of what use the freedom to choose living in a given school district if congress has jealously guarded some ghoul’s “right” to amass an arsenal for use on classrooms full of small children? If public safety is not the province of government, I need someone with a sound education to explain why the hell not

Imagine, if you will, a U.S. government that not only does not degrade into a sinister dictatorship that needs overthrowing but comes to contribute meaningfully to our general welfare – as proposed by its constitution. What if there were a new morning in America wherein our police and government officials were almost always good people doing a good job – oh wait, slap my pate – such is the case already. What if we had sound and essentially trustworthy government, government in good faith? Oh wait, we do.

Not that we are going to realize some utopian dream overnight, but gun laws based on enlightenment and imagination could make public places safer for defenseless civilians while satisfactorily indulging a right of citizens to own and use firearms.

At the cost of a tiny fraction of our right to privacy, we could make life safer for us all. What would the law-abiding have to fear from annually scheduled cursory inspections of basements, attics, etc? Negligible inconvenience to our liberties, in exchange for great strides in protecting women and children from imprisonment and heinous abuse?

If we hear a rowdy murmur at such ideas, it is the sound of conservatives who used to pretend to care for law and order but now disdain same, like drunk and cranky cowboys. Damn the demagoguery, the pandering, the filibuster and the gerrymander that defeat the people’s sound wisdom and warp outcomes for us all.

SGTex
*****

Let's all celebrate....

I used to think....

....that was just about all that was required for being pretty happy.  Well, nowadays I tend to disagree with that idea.  I've found much more interesting and rewarding and exciting and exasperating and wonderful levels of happy, and I'm grateful. 

However, I will say that having a lovely garden and somewhere to dig and plant and pull weeds and trim and pick flowers is just about the most therapeutic place in life to be for many of us.  I come from a long line of happy gardeners and have spent many lovely hours with a basket of blooms.  A few of you know that I kept a pair of bright red garden shears in my car where they were handy to trim the lavender and roses away from the driveway edge.  A few others know that when I lived in Oregon and had a spectacular hydrangea that people liked to "sample" a pair of shears could be found in my mailbox by the front door.  My house happened to be on the local walking tour, and more than a few "walking tourists" passed by my house to look it over and left with a bouquet, lol.  My Nana used to spend long hours in her garden and she often said it was what made her happy.  As the years went by her expanse of green lawns turned into various flower beds and she'd pretty much dug up and planted and pulled out and replanted the whole property.  It was a riot of color and filled with birds and bees and became the perfect backdrop for her bright red house. 

When I was on my own everything in my garden seemed to be pinks and blues and purples and lavenders and soft whites.  I love a red geranium and have found it to be the most hopeful plant to have around here in my part of Texas, if I want it to last and bloom and not over-bake in the hot sun, lol.  Nasturtiums are a favorite and many of my friends will roll their eyes when I mention once again that the squirrel who lives in our yard most of the time absolutely loves a nasturtium salad with his pecans.

Anyway, this isn't really about gardening.  Nor is it about libraries, although I will mention that SGTex and I enjoyed watching the dedication of the George W Bush Library the other morning.  Our liberal friends have punished me more than a little for admitting to liking the ceremony and having something pleasant to say.  I do believe they feel he should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail, as their bitterness seems to be still somewhat fresh and more than a little deep.  That's okay, for them.  I guess I've got more important things about which to concern myself, to my way of thinking.  It seems like it's not too much of a shock to think that a past leader of the USA might have a presidential library, too.  All the others have gotten one, or a chance at having one.  (eyeroll)  SGTex and I have always been quite lucky to be at home together to enjoy some big event on the news, and this was just one more of these and we enjoyed it in our particular way, so I'm grateful, even if it is celebrating someone from the (gasp) "other" side of politics, haha.  We're liberals, but we're not too (two?) angry liberals.

Our life is changing and over the next couple of months there will likely be some upheaval.  Already, I'm starting to adjust to the idea of new schedule, new circumstances, the notion of a new location and all kinds of new ways to see and experience things.  Do I feel a headache coming on?  A slight one, but that's okay.  ;~)  It's stressful, but it's a good stress.

I gave up a garden and a library to get this far and am going to make plans for a new garden and a new library to enjoy, down the road a bit, which isn't so far after all.

Toodles!

Shawn
****

So much to say....

.... and so little time...

I feel a bit like this rabbit looks.  Where do I begin?  I've got so much on my mind and could jump in so many different directions with this post. 

I guess I'll just do the usual "Isn't it a beautiful day?"  Well, it is.  Despite the news reports of various tragedies and problems and issues, it is still a beautiful day.  Things are still going to be all right, or as "all right" as they can be with the world spinning as it does and people acting as they do.  Perhaps I should say "acting out as they do." 

Have they caught the 2nd marathon bomber yet?  We had the news on all night long, watching the melodrama in the Boston area and the aftermath of the disaster in West, Texas.  We still managed to get a pretty good night's sleep, because this is still America.  No matter what the naysayers say about us and our politics or way of life, we here in the USA will be fine.  We're still mostly good people with good intentions and good thoughts and feelings.  Not too thrilled with Congress (or about half of 'em) and how they caved to the nasty NRA and didn't do what we feel like they should have done about the gun regulations, but the story isn't over and a new day will come when common sense and decency will prevail.

Speaking of decency, I want to say "thank you" to the people from all over the planet who have taken time to send their kind greetings and good wishes to the people in West, Texas after the disaster there.  I was seeing on CNN how that has been such an encouragement and just wanted to express my gratitude.  We are, after all, children of the Universe and we do dwell together on this lovely planet.

I'm still going to feel like this rabbit, sitting in a lovely garden, pausing while I decide what flowers to pick and which direction to take.  Will probably just stop and take a look around me to appreciate the good things and be grateful for the life I have.  It's not perfect, but it's a lot better on good days than I could have ever dreamed.

I hope it's much the same for you.

Shawn
****

The appalling real cost of palm oil....

Further to our press release last week concerning starving orangutans rescued from a palm oil concession in West Kalimantan, the images in this New York Daily News coverage show the appalling real cost of palm oil. 

PHOTOS: Orangutans rescued from a bulldozed forest in Indonesia.

Starving and stranded orangutans were rescued after bulldozers destroyed most of their forest home.
Rescuers from the UK charity organization International Animal Rescue (IAR) worked with the local forestry department in Ketapang, West Kalimantan on the Indonesian island of Borneo to save the orangutans. They were alerted of the animals’ predicament by the company Bumitama Gunajaya Argo.

Full story at http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/orangutans-rescued-bulldozed-forest-article-1.1309145

Image: Starving orangutans on the brink of death were rescued in Indonesia after bulldozers destroyed their home to make room for a palm oil plantation.

The above article was on my Facebook newsfeed today and I had to pass it along.

Stop using palm oil products, please.

Shawn
****

Here are some hilariously....

Mixed feelings about St. Patrick's Day....

Sure and the color green first brings to mind good things – it is the color of life, springtime, money, or a green light to go on and get there in time. The Green Movement is positive in favor o’ the planet. These green things and absinthe, we like a lot.


We have mixed feelings about Saint Patrick’s Day, just as not everything green is all that good – there being the green of nausea, or infection, or algae in the fish tank.

My wife’s of Irish blood, and lived there awhile as a young teacher. There an old tinker woman held her face, looked in her eyes and recognized her from a former life. There she saw Ogham symbols carved in trees and stones, or stones stacked in a special secret way at gravesites, a silence and a subtlety that spoke volumes about Catholic oppression in centuries past.

Come the Internet, there came a worthy worldwide revival known as Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism. We have no reverence for such “saints” as Patrick, and would not care to celebrate the cruel scourge he instigated to replace Celts and Druids with Christians.

Crediting old Pat with driving snakes from Eire is almost as wrong and silly as young-earth creationism. There never had been any snakes there – the Ice Age saw to that.

I always remember the 17th of March as the anniversary of my departure from Hendrick Medical Center. They drove me out proper, they did, in good Christian style.

SGTex
****

It's my birthday....

.... and I've spent much of the day thanking my wonderful Facebook friends for the sweet greetings they've been leaving on my wall.

Is the rest of the world as involved as we are (I am) with social networking?  Frankly, it would be a different world if we hadn't the ability to chat across the miles.  I was telling someone today how often one of my friends on the other side of the planet is on their way to bed and I'm just getting up and wishing them a good day, lol. 

I thought this cartoon was cute.  Every time SGTex coughs or sneezes he gets a "Bless you!" from me...and vice versa, so I kinda related to these sheep, haha.

Well, I must say it's been quite a day.  A good part of it was getting the chance to talk to family folks.  That doesn't happen too often, with me being down here in Texas in the middle of the prairie and they're quite a ways elsewhere.  Months can go by between conversations and years will pass between actual face-to-face visits.  That is not a good thing.  I haven't seen one brother for 13 years, now.  Some family members I have yet to meet.  What's up with that?!  Anyway, never mind.  I guess I'm allowed to get personal on my birthday, on my blog, right?  ;~)

I hope that when you have birthdays they are happy and makers of great memories.  There's salmon about to go on the grill out in the back yard and a chocolate cake with pink striped candles is waiting in the other room. 

So, I'm just sitting here at my desk wishing all of you the best possible day or night, wherever you are, and whatever time it is there.  If you happen to stop by and read this, don't be shy.  Say hello.

Love!

Shawn
****

I have feelings....

....too, and my feelings matter.

That's something you might hear someone say to you from time to time.  Or perhaps it's something you say to them, or maybe you just think about saying that.

Anyway, it's been on my mind more than usual, lately.  I guess stuff that's happening in my world is probably not much different than stuff happening in your world, if we're talking about the "close to my heart" kind of world.  What might be happening in the big, planetary scheme of things is probably vastly different and even more important, I suppose. 

Just the other day I was informed by a friend that it's scary at night where they live.  They might lock their doors and have dogs to sound the alarm when bad things are about to happen (and they do happen on a regular basis), but they never really know that it's safe to go to sleep and dream pleasant dreams.  How can they live that way?  They get up in the morning and manage to be relatively cheerful and brave and go about their day very effectively.  I'd be terrified.  It's an injustice, their having to live like that, and it seems that there's no recourse for them and no one to make it different at this point in time. 

What about Syria?  We've talked about that before.  Or what about people who have chronic illness, even to the point of terminal disease?  How do they manage their "story" and get by each and every day, feeling like it's worth it to get up in the morning and go about what business they might have yet to do in their life?  I admire people who have the courage to look on the bright side and seize their day and make a positive difference, but it has to be difficult. 

Oftentimes, the real, lasting difference that someone has made is merely a moment taken to have a hug or some conversation and reach out, giving some love to one who needs it. 

There were people in my life who did that very thing.  On two occasions, I had two separate conversations in two separate towns with two separate women had to do with one particular issue.  I needed to be reminded of something about myself, and it was obvious to them, and they let me know that my feelings mattered.  ;~)  That was a very long time ago, and both of these women have left this lifetime and are somewhere out there beyond my reach, but whenever they come to mind, I think how they took a little time to put their arms around me and say a few gentle words.  For that I am truly grateful.

I just hope that I can do that for someone, and that when they think of me, they'll be smiling.

Or laughing.  ;~D

Shawn
****

Happy Valentine's Day.....

~Love One Another~

....Shawn & SGTex....

Bear Hill Babies.....

Ben Kilham, the only bear rehabilitator in New Hampshire, is this winter caring for a record 27 orphaned bear cubs. He usually has on average three to five orphaned cubs hibernating in an enclosure near his home in the woods. Food bills are... usually minimal, because the cubs slept through the winter.

But this year, because so many female bears were shot in chicken coops and bee hives across the state, he has a problem. They are waking each other up, playing in the trees, burning up the calories and running up a huge bill on Kibbles 'n Bits. Despite receiving grants and donations from the public, the bill for keeping the cubs fed until Spring will average at $1,000 per cub.


If you would be like to help Ben pay for food for the bears please send checks to:

Bear Hill Conservancy Trust in care of Ben Kilham
P.O. Box 37
Lyme, NH 03768

~Thank you!  Pass the word along.  Let's do a better job taking care of our friends in the wild.

Shawn & SGTex
****

It's just about....

....a week until Valentine's Day.




There's just time enough to heal the brokenhearted, or at least make the attempt.



Time enough to let the one you love know that you don't take him or her for granted, and that you appreciate and see the effort he or she makes to let you know that you are truly special.



Let them know that they do actually matter and make a difference in your life.



It's important to not assume that what they need to believe in order to get through the days and nights just goes without saying. And while you're saying it, if you can't say it with gold or diamonds or chocolate, then say it by word or deed, with hearts and flowers of some sort and above all-- mean every word.



~ Anonymous  

xoxo Shawn xoxo

Happy Birthday......

.... Bob Marley....

Carpe dentum.....

....seize the teeth! 

Well, didn't Mrs. Doubtfire just take liberties all over the place. 

Last night we watched (apparently for the third or fourth time) one of my favorite movies, and after what's happened today in my little world, I got to thinking.

Uh oh, you say?  Does it seem to you that Daniel, being who he was all that time, didn't really know what others were thinking about him and was pretty oblivious to the effect his (mis)behaviors were having on his life and loved ones?  Then, when it all got turned upside down he transformed himself on the outside in order to preserve his relationship with his children and become a new and improved version of himself on the inside.  What others thought of him wasn't really entirely true, but he turned the pain of being told off, having his marriage end and his life go to pieces into something positive.  He gained some insight by basically eavesdropping on his own life when he/she had a cuppa with his ex-wife.  That must have been devastating, but he took it and processed it in his way.  

I'm kinda thinking that what he heard about himself may or may not have been true--that's not the important part.  It's that he was able to hang on to some self respect and be thankful he was who he was, inside.  He held himself together and created a new (though temporary) persona in order to fight for who he wanted to be, and that was who he had been in the first place:  the father of his children.  The new and improved version.

I don't know why I'm saying this, but it just occurred to me that sometimes we think we're giving one impression and it just so happens that it's not the one we intended to give.  I can mean for someone to believe one thing about me and think I'm totally on point and then find out that they haven't gotten that impression at all.  For whatever reason, they're thinking something totally different about me....perhaps due to their own prejudices or expectations or doubts and fears.

Sometimes you just can't win for losing, but if you can find something in yourself for which to be thankful at least you'll have a fighting chance at turning out to be who you meant to be tomorrow.

Go ahead and *Carpe Diem... seize the day*

if tomorrow ever comes, that is....

Shawn
****

O Happy Day....

President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama

January 20, 2012

To the world you might be just one person….

…..but to one person you might be the world.  ~Bill Wilson

Quite the conversation starter, hmm?  We all want to be the world to someone and have someone be our world…In the nicest possible way. 

I’ve kinda had that on my mind a bit over the last few days, but I must warn you that I’ve been sick, so we really had better not put too much stock in my thoughts when I’m running a fever.  And yes, I know there are more than a few of you out there who are snickering right now, as in "what’s my excuse when I’m not feverish?"  Yeah.

Anyway, there’s that, and then you probably have seen that we here in the US of A are getting excited for the Inauguration.  Some people wonder why there is such an event for a 2nd term election.  I’m not sure who has done what in the past, but we have friends who are going to Washington, DC to be there and it will be fun to see their pictures and read what they have to say about all of it.

For our part, we sent greetings along to Bo, the First Dog from Sebastian and Seamus, the Havanese Hellboys.  LOL.  Sebastian, by the way, has been naughty.  He chased a cat up a tree and now goes around acting like he’s the neighborhood Tuff Guy.  (being clueless that he's about the size of a loaf of bakery bread!)  Seamus has been his usual angelic self.  At least to the best of our knowledge, which is somewhat limited.  This pair is always up to something.

Well, see?!  I didn’t have anything more substantial to say than I usually do, after all.  Haha.  Perhaps there will be something interesting to share later on down the road.  Meanwhile, we do hope you have wonderful days and nights.  Welcome to our new readers and we’re so glad that each of you stop by.

See you in the funnies!  (Do they say that where you come from?)

Love!

Shawn

****

What's love got...

...to do with it?

Just about everything.

So, I just happened to notice that some time has gone by and I haven't blogged in awhile. 

I might have had more to say about life these days, but my mind has been quite preoccupied with things that are not conducive to blogging, really.  Sometimes things are just too personal or hard to explain or of absolutely no interest to anyone but me, and I'd just as soon find another interest, iykwim. 

I was having a conversation with a friend who mentioned how much people post mundane, trivial and even irritating things on Facebook.  I think I probably do some of that, and do some of it right here on the blog. 

Eyeroll.

(Hey, has it ever struck you as interesting that you might overhear a conversation and the word "Facebook" comes up, and you think to yourself, "I wouldn't have ever heard such a word used 15 years ago."  Or am I the only one who thinks up this stuff (speaking of mundane, trivial and even irritating things)?  LOL.

 Anyway, I was about to say that it's more than a week into 2013 and I've been thinking about things, wondering and speculating and figuring and yada yada yada.  Cryptic, I am.  Haha.  You'll be glad to know I do plan on continuing to keep those thoughts mostly to myself, but wanted to stop by and remind myself and others who might pass through that we need peace of mind, peace in our hearts and peace in our homes.  The neighborhoods in which we live need peace, as do our cities and countrysides.

Let's do it.....love the world into peace.

Shawn
****

Happy New Year....

....to our friends around the world. 

We're so glad you stop by from time to time and hope that 2013 brings you all the best there is.

We wish you....

...a most wonderful holiday and the best of family and friends time together as 2012 draws to a close.

This past year has been filled with amazing, special times to remember, both with joy and with sorrow.

We are trusting that the new year brings healing and blessing to all of us, but most especially those who lost their loved ones in the recent tragedies here in America. 

Glad tidings!!

Shawn & SGTex, Seamus & Sebastian

Remembering...

...those ones we loved and lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

Tis the season....

....in Malaysia!!!

~Shawn & SGTex~

Our blue marble....

This famous "Blue Marble" shot represents the first photograph in which Earth is in full view. The picture was taken on December 7, 1972, as the Apollo 17 crew left Earth’s orbit for the moon. With the sun at their backs, the crew had a perfectly lit view of the blue planet.



Nationalgraphic.com  Milestones In Space Photography   Photograph courtesy NASA Johnson Space Center



It's been 40 years since this picture was taken, and I have to think:  How nicely have we been playing with our blue marble? 
Since 1972, we've learned a lot about the environment and have a better idea of what we can do to preserve the planet and make our air and water and soil more pure.  We've got a better idea of what we can do politically.  We're able to know, as it happens, what happens.  If I were to stick a pin in this picture, I could pin the spot where people were caring and giving help and aid to preserve wildlife.

 I could pin the spot (Taiji cove in Japan, for example) where people are ignoring those who care and are herding, chasing, tormenting, trapping and slaughtering dolphins and whales....mostly for food and once in awhile for the sport and entertainment of others.  (Hey, Japan!  How'd you like that earthquake?  Everybody okay over there?  You've had 2 warnings from the planet to knock it off.....Pay attention!!)

Or how about Syria?  Would someone please explain to me the mentality behind making war on your own people, please.  Oh.  It just cannot be explained.  I thought not.

Yeah, there are a few things happening around this world which give me some grief, but that's NOTHING like the grief the perpetrators who make war on this planet and those who live upon it will be receiving when their time comes.

And it will.

Mark my words.

Shawn
****

December Moon....

Before going to bed

After a fall of snow

I look out on the field

Shining there in the moonlight

So calm, untouched and white

Snow silence fills my head

After I leave the window.



Hours later near dawn

When I look down again

The whole landscape has changed

The perfect surface gone

Criss-crossed and written on

Where the wild creatures ranged

While the moon rose and shone.



Why did my dog not bark?

Why did I hear no sound

There on the snow-locked ground

In the tumultuous dark?



How much can come, how much can go

When the December moon is bright,

What worlds of play we'll never know

Sleeping away the cold white night

After a fall of snow.



~May Sarton