Thursday, October 31, 2013

Lesson Learned

Each generation accepts the world it finds.  Even if they learn that once the world was greener, cleaner, richer, they are unable to do more than pass on a feeble warning to the next generation who will accept what they find.
And so it goes, until the day we accept the desert.
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Monday, October 28, 2013

Reach out and touch someone?

President Obama's mouthpieces have told us that he didn't know the NSA had listened in on personal cell phones of other world leaders.
Does he think this makes us feel better?  Does he think it makes him look good?  Is it even true?
If it is true, then the President should be angry as hell, condemning the practice in strong language and starting a deep investigation into the management and practices of the agency. 
If he doesn't do something like that, then I will know the alibi is a lie.
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Thursday, October 24, 2013

"We don't talk politics here."

"We are too high-minded for that."

As a young man making contact with the world of strangers, I would often hear from people at first acquaintance the following statement "We (or I) never talk religion or politics," or something like that.  Even without their adamancy the statement surprised me.  Two of the most interesting and important areas of our life and we can't talk about it.
Such seems to be the attitude of some blogs that I enjoy visiting and reading.  These blogs are usually of the literary kind, a place where books and poetry and writing and authors are discussed, analyzed, praised and damned.  Most of the time I find their posts enjoyable, and often I am enlightened by their original views.
Occasionally, however, a post will begin with a lament on a writer who, on a particular occasion, fell from grace by writing about a public matter that addressed the uses of killing people in order to protect us all from evil.  This issue, along with a disparate variety of other issues, is generally dumped into a refuse bin called "Politics."  Noses turn up at the offensive odor from this bin.  People look at their hands and inside their minds to see if anything got soiled.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Where was I?

I have been feeding raw peanuts (in shell) to the squirrels who live in our trees.  Blue jays and cardinals like the peanuts too but they have to work much harder to open the shell. 
An element of trust has developed in the behavior of the birds and squirrels.  They don't run or fly away when I open the door.  They sit on the outdoor furniture waiting for the gift.  In fact, there are two squirrels who sidle up to me and let me bend down to offer a peanut in my hand.  They gently take the peanut in their teeth and scurry away.
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