The Sunday Morning Muse, February 24, 2013

 Why is it that people are so enamored with "end of the world" type stories? We obsessed over Y2K and the Mayan Calendar,  the End of Times religious scenarios, asteroids blasting us into smithereens, or whatever.

This week it's the Malachy Prophesies. Hundreds of years ago some prophet predicts there will be  112 popes....and now what happens? The 111th one quits. Here we go. I made a bet on the Pope lottery this week. I feel the next Pope will be Italian. My feeling is that the last one was German, and Polish before that. The Italians may feel the need to take back some control over there in Rome with things being as bad as they are in the Catholic religion lately.

If you have a lonely uncle (or great aunt in my case) who sits around and watches Fox News all day and is up half the night listening to Coast to Coast,  they have their own far out ideas of the coming future. My 87 year old aunt won't buy new linoleum for her kitchen floor because she says the world is coming to an end anyway. Besides with the Great Depression coming, she says, we will all need the money to buy food. All stated matter of fact-ly.

Once a reasonable person, she is now reduced to a paranoid, fearful woman who hates the government, trusts no one,  and fears whatever is left of her future. How could she not be afraid? With our "Muslim" president and his "far out liberal ideas?" The pretty woman with the blonde hair and the very tight red dress wouldn't LIE to her?  Would she? Rich people shouldn't pay taxes at all...they are the Job Creators!

No sense talking to her about it. I just told her the linoleum REALLY does need replaced.  It's yellowed and
pockmarked and just looks bad.

God Made a DJ

Walk On...

Thomas Paine Said...

The Sunday Morning Muse, February 17, 2013

It's a winter weather advisory morning....that means a dusting of snow on the road. Pretty to look into the woods, though...and along the driveway the snowbells are the first flower to bloom. Just tiny little things...but a sign of what is to come.

Unless we get wiped out by an asteroid or meteor or some other falling star too big to put in your pocket. (I almost posted a Perry Como video here, but they were just too...cheesy...I guess.)

That sure was something this week. Sheesh. You just never know. We all had our eye on the big asteroid that was to graze past us by a good 17 thousand miles...and then, as Donovan would put it, God was playing marbles with his planets and his stars...and BAM!  The sky lights up in Russia and hundreds are hurt, buildings are damaged and thousands are left scratching their heads....what the HELL was that? A meteor!
On the same day as the asteroid zipping past.

Kind of puts things in perspective. You really don't know what the day will bring.

Update:  I watched this report on CBS Sunday Morning about the hunt for meteorites in a remote place here on earth. I am fascinated by what scientists can learn about the origins of the solar system from the study of the fragments of asteroids and meteorites that find their way here from great distances.  The story really builds interest for the program....and then the kicker. You'll never guess which Senators oppose this scientific research.  I won't give it away, but when I saw the names they came as no suprise to me. They were never big intellectual heavyweights. Where is the sense of wonder? We are just at the brink of learning so much about the ancient beginnings of this thing called life...Such accomplishments like sending a man made rocket clear to the outer edge of our solar system.....the Hubble telescope's wonderous images.... the Mars landings. Perhaps it is easier to just believe the earth is six thousand years old and just stick your fingers in your ears and say la la la as you pray to a God you fear. The tree of knowledge is out there. I praise those
who choose to climb it.

Maybe I Should Buy Romance Novels Instead

Exactly a day after I ordered the below mentioned book, I came down with a viscious bug. I wish the book would hurry up and get here.  I could use the insight right now.  Plus I'm bored/bedridden/sick.  I need something to read.

Wow. I won't gross anyone out with the details but whatever bug is in me kicked my butt. I feel like someone who drank the water in Mexico and said screw it, I'll eat the tacos with hot sauce, too.  Only problem is, this came out of nowhere. Instant sickness.  Literally went to work fine in the morning and had to have someone drive me to the doctor in the afternoon because I couldn't get there myself.

Cipro is helping a bit. But when you can't eat, it makes you queasy.

Perhaps if I'd of ordered a romance book instead, then some hunk of a man would be here working on a Valentine's poem to give me to cheer me up. Or making me chicken soup. Or at least running to the drug store for Gatorade.

Sheesh.

The Sunday Morning Muse, February 10, 2013

What a great sunrise today..... purples and light orange stretched out over the entire hill across the river as far as I can see. Already productive.... ordered more flower seeds....finally found the 6 foot Amaranthus called Velvet Curtains, that I like so much. I got the wrong kind last year....and they only grew about 2 feet. The giant burgundy plumes are a favorite around here. The Dreadlocks amaranthus is also one that I grow every
year and share with others. It is so unusual and one of the last flowers left in the garden in Fall.  It is really a cool plant.

Thinking ahead to spring. Musing about buying more poetry books, and fewer books on gastroenterology. I also resolve to read at least one love story. (Meanwhile, I just ordered The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites and Partners that Shape Who We are Today.) I got the idea to order that one from reading a story in the paper today about probiotics.  Antibiotics are stripping our guts of good bacterium as well as the bad....and we need to keep things in balance or risk some nasty digestive problems.

I'm not a total medical geek. I still find time to read an occasional Longfellow poem, or Whitman, or Dickinson. And that is a good thing.  I read where some anti intellectuals are trying to steer people away from taking "liberal arts" courses in favor of more "practical" fields of study. Their argument is that Philosophy
majors don't get jobs. Perhaps. I didn't major in Philosophy, but I did graduate from a Liberal Arts College. My courses in  Philosophy...and art, and theatre and history and literature opened up new worlds
for me and helped to develop my critical thinking skills. I got a window into world views and ideas that shape who I am today. I have used a lot of that knowledge time and time again in my life, in every job that I had.

And it expanded my life in ways I could never imagined for myself. I'm grateful for those courses. Even the religion classes I had to take as a requirement. I didn't know it at the time, but learning ABOUT religion...and the many religions out there...how they formed, who was in charge, how religious texts came about, etc. gave me enough insight to know we have to figure out a lot of things for ourselves. No one really has all the answers.

It is one thing to learn computers. It is another to have something to say. We are not meant to be empty vessels travelling through this life getting by simply learning a trade and repeating it day to day until we are old and die. I'm not saying we don't need a job, it is obvious we do. But I think these clam shells out there who have no sense of history, art, music, and yes philosophy, only have a small appreciation of what this human experience offers.

Today's Thought

The Sunday Morning Muse, February 3, 2013

It's Sunday morning once again. No sun to speak of...yet. Snow out there. Cold. Dark. Lights from the houses on the hill over the viaduct kind of look like stars without my glasses on. Trying to live in the present moment and not worry so much.

Stella's back home. We did get her in rehab and she is improving. Good attitude, glad to be here, even with my cooking.

Practicing mindfulness. Like, for example, now. Right now in THIS present moment I am sipping my second cup of coffee and wondering whether it will mess with the Nexium capsule I took an hour ago. The cat is curled in a ball but with one eye open toward the door, ever vigilant of the sudden intrusion of the other cat. The cat is mindfulness, incarnate. She teaches me a lot.

I glanced at the headlines to see if something interests/inspires/outrages/amuses me. It's slim pickings today. I don't care to comment on the new "side boob" fashion phase, or whether Ed Koch was gay. Was Burger King selling hamburgers with horsemeat in the U.K.? Superbowl commercials...I must be old, I remember when they were a mere 750 thousand dollars a piece. Now they are four million. I'll probably see more of them than I will the game, since I don't care which team wins. If the Steelers aren't playing, it's not really important around here.

Hmm...This Fark.com headline is epitome of irony: Deadliest Sniper in US History Killed at Rifle Range.

Ground Hog Day, "I'm a God" Scene

Groundhog Predicts Early Spring

Let's do a happy dance!


I'm going to order my flower seeds this weekend. I am more than ready for spring.