I propose

I propose a new marathon ... the Oy Vey, 2 K for those of us who feel we are running and running and running and staying in the same place.

Bogus Campaign Issues

Up here in Virginia, we have all sorts of political go-getters who wanna be on the Hill in D.C. They come up with issues that really are non-starters and work the ads until they have a group of people convinced that the sky actually is falling. One of these issues is illegal immigration. Their reasoning goes like this as far as I can tell: "people need to pay into the system before they can get benefits." But surely that logic goes for all of us. If we don't pay into the system -- and you cannot tell me that we all pay the same percentage, then do we deserve the $$ we get out of the system? Ummm, well, that varies depending on the political party that is complaining about illegal immigration. There certainly is a huge demographic shift up here in Virginia. Manassas, for instance, is saturated with Hispanics. Billboards are in Spanish, ditto restaurants, ditto banks.

That's cause for alarm here in the Virginia Piedmont. Heck, many of the residents just outside the beltway are only a veneer away from the Civil War. Route 50 West turns into the Stonewall Jackson Highway. No mention of Route 50 at all. So savvy politicos play on the fears of these folks and sadly they are finding a large audience. Personally, I feel we should allow the illegal immigrants work towards their place here in the country.

Even more personally, I don't believe we have an illegal immigrant problem. We have a problem accepting people who are hard workers. Sure, the huge influx of refugees (economic or otherwise) has brought with it the criminal element. But that criminal element is already here in the U.S. We just call it poor white trash or mafia or whatever else seems to fit the day. And for those ethnics like WASPs who don't believe they have a criminal element, we have folks like Lorena Bobbitt or the bigger fish we call the managers of Enron. My point is that bad people come in all ethnics, all shades, all income levels. To exclude one group because of paper work makes me cringe.

My family came over here back in the 1720s or earlier (that is not bragging folks that is just fact). Paperwork? Legal? Heck, we didn't even have our legal surname of MacGregor. We had to skedaddle out of Scotland because there was a death sentence on anyone with that name. We became criminals in Scotland for backing the wrong side in the Rob Roy MacGregor/Bonnie Prince Charlie uprising. "Children of the Mist" MacGregors were cattle thieves according to the Duke of Montrose. Go figure. So who is to say who is a criminal today? You? Me? Let's just see and meanwhile let's not be too hasty to condemn those who don't speak the same way we do. It is morally and ethically wrong. People in glass houses should not cast stones. But if you believe the politicians? I feel sorry for you.

Lucy the Lazy Star...New Story Inspired by Britney Spears

Once upon time there was a very lazy star named Lucy. She just didn't want to be bothered with anything. Moon Rise, Star Rise. Lucy poohed, poohed them both. She figured she was above being ordered around. After all, she was the subject of the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." So for years, Lucy rose when she wanted to and set when she felt good and ready. This went on for years and years until Lucy had a little baby star named Ethelbert or Bert for short. Now Bert was a very rambunctious boy star. In other words, Bert was a Brat. He was always running her ragged. Whine, whine, whine. So of course Lucy did what any mom would do. She got him whatever he whined about just to shut him up. Her only mistake was not getting two of the same things. And this is where my story begins. One night Bert was in a particularly busy mood. He had just discovered rollerblading. Boy, did he love rollerblading. He hounded Lucy for skates and she got him some. He hounded her for running around time and she let him roam around the skies with no supervision. But when he bumped into the Milky Way and hit the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon, Mother Nature decided to tie the little star to his mom and took away his Rollerblades so he would be under control. Fat lot of good that did. The very next night, Bert whined to his mom. He wanted his skates back, bad. He started to pull on her star rays and fuss about her being a bad mom. He pulled Lucy right down to the apple orchard in Antrim, New Hampshire because she didn't have any Rollerblades to distract him with. Once Lucy got low enough, Old Man Tree's apple beard caught her and her kid and held them both tight. Well, this was a mess. Lucy's star light woke up Old Man Tree and her stray star rays tickled his nose so that he started to sneeze. And when Old Man Tree sneezed, he woke up the apple tree bees who started buzzing so much they woke up little Hazel the apple tree girl whose main job was to keep the bees busy making apple tree honey so Belinda Badger could sell it at the Orchard Fair at Halloween. Once Hazel saw what was going on, she pounded on Belinda's door and woke up Belinda. Being a badger, Belinda was always grumpy after getting up, but, boy, she was glad Hazel was such a good bee watcher because otherwise her apple honey would not be made by her bees. Belinda hustled over to Nicolas Weatherby's office where he was star gazing and told him they needed to figure out a way to get the mom star back in the sky. He called the Starshine Catapult School where shooting stars get shot into space and arranged for a special transport to the School for the very next launch. And so, the shooting star the folks in Appleton saw that night was Lucy the Lazy star and her kid. Which only goes to show that no matter how big or lazy a star you are, no matter how many diamonds you have, UNLESS you have that extra toy for your kids, they will pull you right down. So always plan ahead.

What Kind of Pet Test

You Would Be a Pet Bird

You're intelligent and witty, yet surprisingly low maintenance. You charm people easily, and they usually love you a lot more than you love them. You resent anyone who tries to own or control you. You refuse to be fenced in. Why you would make a great pet: You're very smart and entertaining Why you would make a bad pet: You're not interested in being anyone's pet! What you would love about being a bird: Flying, obviously What you would hate about being a bird: Being caged

What Kind of Pet Would You Be?

Updating the Devil's Dictionary

Ambrose Bierce, where are you? The Devil's Dictionary needs updating. Here is a website devoted to Bierce-isms.... http://donswaim.com/
New entry in proposed update:
Strident Gum -- What do disgruntled employees chew?

To order a copy for yourselves....
http://books.google.com/books?id=h_sUAAAACAAJ

Oaths in Felix's View

Fealty used to be pledged by holding your hands between those of your leige lord. Society for Creative Anachronism's (which is not wikipedia-standard) has many entries about this.... Here is a link to one member's opinion which I happen to find directly on point and very informative. http://members.tripod.com/~whitebard/onfealty.htm Many professions and the best of relationships used to have unstated fealty agreements. Law firms, military, government -- even the President of the United States, have to take oaths. Confidentiality oaths, oaths to uphold and protect, and others too numerous to mention. All these oaths formalize the chain of command duties expected from below to above and from above to below. At least that's how they are supposed to work. But just like traffic lights that scofflaws drive through, oathes these days are honored more in the abstract than in reality. And that is such a shame. No wonder we are all on antidepressants. Felix up there feels, and I agree with him, that there really is no one looking out for our welfare but ourselves. Talk about pressure. Hah! This year, however, I made a resolution to hold hands with the universe instead of with men/firms/women/groups. A universe comprised of animals, animal rescue people, metaphysical healers, and Buddhists. And I find that holding hands with these folks and with the animals gives me more peace than I have ever known before in far more challenging situations. And I find that when I know more peace, I am willing to risk more of myself...from rescue runs going more than 100 miles to moving on in my personal and professional life. I am opening up to having faith in the universe. And that is such a good thing to have. Until more peace comes,
Namaste

Pass the Ice Floes

America today is like the polar bears swimming in the ocean looking for ever shrinking ice floes. We think we are the biggest bear in the world but we don’t have the infrastructure to support us anymore. Bridges collapse, mine owners refuse to dig out the remains of miners who die, New Orleans is a village of broken houses and shattered dreams, animals are gassed or used in dog/cock/animal fights and killed when they don’t perform, the Michael Vicks of the land just think they can apologize and that gets them off the hook for murdering animals, and humans are shut out of work because they possess obsolete skills the labor force doesn’t need anymore. And through it all, the government is busy pointing fingers at Iran saying we need to fight them next. And telling us that we are winning in Iraq. Please.... The government is busy covering up the way they have broken the laws and the constitution in this country. It is only a matter of time before the citizens of this country realize that they are like that poor polar bear swimming for its life in a dangerous sea. Will it find a place to land? Not likely.

Take a Thing...

Take a thing my mom would say when one of us kids would sniffle. Pain pills and the medical profession. As an owner of a chronic pain syndrome, (pat the nice pain, honey, and don’t worry, it only hisses when it wants attention). Personally, I have been very lucky not to get hooked on pain medication. American's love quick fixes. But quick fixes never last. Fast, faster, fastest only works in stock car races. It is not the way to run a country's health care. And as a chronic pain sufferer, I can tell you from experience that doctors would rather Take insurance companies as a for instance on a subject I have written often about. Chronic Pain. Insurance companies don't want to s. Insurance companies don’t like to pay for extended medical treatments that actually help pain sufferers learn how to live with chronic pain. I believe the insurance providers would rather have the doctors shovel pills at us instead of starting with the basics of good nutrition, good sleep habits, good mental health. Those fixes take time. It is easier to give out pills and have the patient go away. My current theory is that as an individual I am addicted to pain itself. And pills will not break that habit. I don’t know how to behave when I don’t hurt. So I am grateful that what I have seems resistant to regular over the counter and high powered drugs my doctors tried to use on me 4 years ago. Making friends with pain instead of using it as a way of validating myself is new. And I would never have learned it embittered by drugs failing to work driving me to use more and more. Now that, honeys, is addiction.

Quo Vadis?

Questions? As I get older, I ask myself things I never thought about before. For instance, bones….how many bones are discarded every year, every month, every day, every hour, every minute, every second? I am betting that those bones would bury us. Kruschev threatened to bury us as he pounded his shoe on the table at the United Nations. Empty threat. All he needed to do was wait. We'd kill ourselves by second hand smoke, toxic landfills, birth defects from thalidomide, above ground nuclear testing. Hah! But I digress. One way bones are disposed of is by cremation. Another is for them to be processed for use as by-products in dog food, in cat food, in cow chow. Did you know mad cow disease is caused by cows eating cow remains? So what do we humans get in our chow? It is a disgusting question that has had me eating macaroni and cheese for the whole summer and trying desperately to stay away from normal (hah) sources of protein. I am going to do some googling to find out more information. Meanwhile, can you pass me the nuts?

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Shelf Life and Zen

This morning it hit me. Being a parent has a short shelf life. Being parentally involved is forever. After a certain age, kids surely don't need to be told who to talk to, how to act, what to do, how to get good grades. Those hands' on tasks pretty much are over when the kid turns 7. And they are over and done with by the time a kid becomes a teenager of 15 to 20. Currently, I am onto the next phase of life...caring but not taking over. Adopting/rescuing cats instead of wiping noses and bandaging knees. Now I am being relied upon in some things but not in others. Being a stone in the river of life for them to swim over to for anchorage as needed. At least, that's my view at the moment. The main thing is to work on my own view of the situation and learn to hold close with an open hand. Zen koans help .... Until zen, peace

Yippee

Rescue works like that. I get all excited when I sign up to help out. I am doing a run with a Mastiff (can we say BIG) on Saturday and then going to my FOHA cats on Sunday. Yippee.

Phrases that Should be Banned

Of all the bureaucratic goobledygook, this phrase tops the list.

While attendance is optional, we encourage you to attend.

What exactly does it mean? Red marks will be drawn around necks of those who do not come to the meeting? Or is it just a feeble reminder that RSVPs are dead?

Mikado Wisdom (G&S) and Ginger Joe

I rescued the cat above because neighborhood kids were throwing things at him. Ginger Joe is a real lap cat all of which goes to show that malicious treatment doesn't necessarily make a sweet animal mean. But abusive behavior makes me furious no matter who it is directed towards. Michael Vick? The kids in the neighborhood? All one and the same to me. Mini-Vicks just waiting to grow up to run dog fights. Hurting animals deadens the ethics of small kids to just about everything else. Clearly it did in Vicks' case. So no, I am no fan of bullies. I don't understand what it is about smaller animals or people that tempts bigger people or corporations to bully. As a a small woman in America, I wrestle with bullying, whether institutional or societal, all the time. From the pompous people who cut in front of me at Starbucks to the institutionally ingrained bullying of size-ism, age-ism and whatever else-ism that exists in America today. Life just got much bigger when I started to rescue because then I knew I could make a difference. Make a change. I feel like the Lord High Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado...I have a little list of bullies....to cut down to size.....

Illusions

Knights in White Satin ... the Moody Blues' classic says it best in the little aside that doesn't get air time these days.....
Cold hearted orb that rules the night Removes the colours from our sight Red is grey and yellow white But we decide which is right .... And which is an illusion
copied from http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=15040

I write about illusion today. Illusion permeates everything ... job safety, health concerns, national concerns. Illusion runs the political debates nowadays. Rupert Murdock's takeover of the Wall Street Journal and DowJones is disturbing. Who knows what illusions will be foisted on us by Murdocks' minions in the future. Only the informed citizen can discern "which is right and which is an illusion."

Enough for now, peace please.

Testing Never Fixes Structural Problems

The photo above is of the Benedict Chapel. It was built more than 100 years ago. Here is a link to St. Paul's Episcopal Church that is connected to the Benedict Chapel. http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/stpaulsepiscopal/

Has the chapel ever been tested for structural soundness? I doubt it. After all, this is a private chapel attached to an Episcopalian Church established in 1818. And the church vestry would need to be the one who initiated the request to test for structural soundness. There are no church building engineers until the churchs are sold as new age condos.

But this story about the church illuminates lots of questions for me. When is testing useful? When is testing used by statisticians to stall? Do tests ever fix the problems they test for? Who should do the testing? The local homeowner, the jurisdiction whose population use a defective bridge, the state, the government? Whose ox is going to be gored? Do you fix the problem and pay the price? Or, as is too often today, stall by testing and retesting until the problem goes away or becomes overtaken by events as in Minnesota?

The Minneapolis bridge disaster had plenty of people wringing their hands on the state of the bridge. Plenty of testing. I am really sure they wanted the bridge to be well, to work. Good wishes, good testing and good intentions on a scale of the bridge collapse really don't work. Fixing the problem works.

My bigger question is this: Do we ever willingly do the tough stuff of protecting and caring for others before they die? On a personal level...in the issue of the abandoned cat. I had people coming up to me wringing their hands..."I have cats already," they'd say. "I just don't know what to do," they'd say. "My husband would kill me if I did anything to help." they'd say. Why don't you take care of him? they'd say. So I did because they weren't going to put themselves out of pocket for $300+ in vet bills or in doing a good deed. They say, they say, they say...makes me sick.

Fixing the problems the Bridge had certainly would have been more than $300 in vet bills but it would have saved the victims' lives. And that surely is priceless.

The Three B's: Boccaccio, Beruit, Bourdain

I am not a fan of Anthony Bourdain. You know, the chef extraordinaire so full of smug arrogance it is hard to believe he has room in his lungs for breathe. He is currently travelling around the world for the Travel Channel making shows about eatteries in various countries. However, my view of him is changing given his most recent show, Anthony Bourdain in Beirut. This was an amazing show cataloging his stay in a country sliding sidewise into the horrific chaos of a war zone. This show, though, marks a watershed for me in my view of him. I am surprised at his candour and his fury at how slipshod the American rescue attempt was for those stuck in Beruit during the latest war between Israel and Lebanon. No doubt, because of my background in Humanities, he reminded me a lot of Boccaccio's Decameron. For those wishing a refreshing dip into the classics again....here is Fordham University's link.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/decameronintro.html. For those just needing a gloss, the Decameron is a story about rich Florentines who fled to their country estates to escape the black death. The parallel for me, was when Bourdain and his filming crew helpers wind up stuck at an extremely beautiful hotel where they cannot flee until their local "fixer" sets things up for them to move to the shore. And that is dependent on the U.S. Marines/Navy finally getting around to picking up refugees at the harbor. Bourdain finds this dicotomy of being safe poolside at a resort hotel while watching other peoples' lives being destroyed upsetting enough to comment on it. It was chilling. No matter what side of the war you supported or believe was justified, this documentary deserves as much play as possible in the U.S. It shows better than words how fragile life is, how easy it is to lose, how reality and comfort can vanish in the space of a breathe, of a sentence, in a heartbeat. Is there safety in the world? Real safety? Not possible. I believe that safety is the illusion of the uninformed. Life is a precarious business made much more so by the expectation that a good life, a comfortable life, will never go away. Maintaining a mindful attitude toward possessions, toward waking the next morning, really is essential for me to maintain my balance in a seriously skewed world which feels the need to attack, counter-attack, endlessly. Jean Dixon, the psychic phenomena of the 60s, said the end of the world would start in the 1990s in the Middle East. Watching Bourdain's show cements that view in my mind. By all means try to find a copy of it to watch. Soon. Until then, peace.

Computer Sayings

I have just discovered the truth in a zen saying I know...that this blog stems from actually. Reflect Repent Reboot. Recently got a new gizmo. It makes a spectacular paper weight. Nevermind it is supposed to connect to the internet. It doesn't need to be useful. Just gorgeous. Who knew I'd get such a diva gadget? Sheesh. Until then, peace...

Noted with Joy

http://moonpointer.com/stonepeace/ Just found this website. A remarkable read. Truly

Sharm El Sheikh Swimming with Sharks

Sometimes, I swim out of my depth. I did it while swimming many years ago at Sharm El Sheikh. In 1983 I went on a tour there and was told to go swimming because the view into the chasm off shore is amazing. It was incredibly deep and clear water. It also had a couple of sharks in it that none of us realized were there until I was about 50 feet from shore. Not being a strong swimmer, I suspect I was just lucky the sharks had other things to do so they didn't bother me. But those tour guides on the shore were sure bothered and calling to get me to swim back to shore. I didn't realize until they pointed out the shark profiles just how lucky I was.

Now I swim out of my depth regularly as I write. Only when I sit down to re-read what I have written do I realize I have hit on a universal truth for me. And hopefully a universal truth for others as well. Ah, those invisible sharks of the soul swimming just out of sight. Certainly, I can't always see them. The sharks, I mean.

Anyway--here is the link to where I was swimming with my sharkey buddies....

http://www.aquatours.com/egypt/sharm.htm and here is a link to photos someone took of area sights ...

http://www.pbase.com/vmarinkovic/egypt