Reflections on the great divide

This is not going to be a political post, even though the title may sound like one. Rather, it is a post about my reflections on the great divide between humanity and nature and how that came to be. I've been thinking about this since I watched My Octopus Teacher last night on Netflix. 

We learned from when we were very young that humanity has been given dominion over the animal kingdom. The Bible states (in Genesis 1:26) that God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' The question is of course what was originally meant by dominion, and what it means in our modern age.

I think that up through the centuries we have managed to twist the word dominion into domination, which has many more negative connotations. That is a reflection on how the word 'dominate' has been used. If mankind dominates, then what is dominated is subject to the whims and mercy of the dominator. Domination can imply cruelty in order to keep what is dominated in line. It most definitely implies the exercise of power over what is dominated, in this case, the creatures of the earth. It does not necessarily imply respect or kindness. I cannot think of one instance where I have heard the word domination and thought about the implications of domination as positive. I prefer the word dominion, because it implies a world where mankind reigns together with nature, in partnership. I think of the word realm, where mankind and animals can exist side by side. Humans can be the stewards of this realm; the role of a steward is to supervise or to take care of. I like that idea very much because the implications of stewardship are not negative, at least not at first glance. 

But how did we get to the great divide between humanity and the animal kingdom? Is that the result of mankind's fall from grace? If we accept the idea that humans were originally formed in the image and likeness of God, then they were free from sin. They lived happily and blissfully in paradise, which was a garden, the Garden of Eden. What did they need for survival? Probably very little. Did they know death? Probably not. But then something happened to change that. Their life in the Garden went from sinless to blemished. If there were animals and birds and sea life in that garden, and apparently there were according to Genesis, then the perfect relationship with them as companions and as possible providers of some types of food (milk, honey) was also changed, for the worse. Rather than existing side by side in a harmonious relationship, discord set in. I doubt that it was ever the divine intention that mankind should dominate the animal kingdom, should abuse animals, should exert power over them in a cruel way. That is not the way of God. And yet every day, that abuse of power happens somewhere in the world. We treat animals and birds better than we did a century ago, at least in terms of being less 'cruel' where meat production is concerned, but we still have a long way to go, and the question really becomes how to live our lives without being cruel to any other living creature. Of course we must then face the reality of meat consumption and how to tackle that. We overfish the oceans, we imprison fish in circular tanks in the name of fish farming and tell ourselves that they are thriving, we squeeze chickens into cramped quarters (likewise hens for their eggs) and tell ourselves that they don't know any better anyway, we pump livestock (and fish) full of antibiotics and tell ourselves that we're doing it to protect them and us. Someone came up with these ideas and introduced them into meat production and fish farming. The intentions might have originally been good, but at this point it's hard to know for sure. Additionally, we are destroying the habitats for many animals, birds, insects and sea life through deforestation, pollution, and other practices. 

I don't pretend to have any answers. We must simply try to do better each day, each week, each month, each year. But when I watch films like My Octopus Teacher, I realize that I have been given a glimpse of how conditions might have been before mankind's fall from grace, how it all might have been had mankind maintained its peaceful co-existence with animals and birds and sea life. The fact that the octopus trusted the human who visited her each day, and even showed him (unsolicited) affection, has no precedent in my world at least. We are talking about an aquatic creature that had probably never seen a human before. It made the decision to establish physical contact with the man. It trusted him and did so for the year that he visited her. That is probably what paradise would have been like; additionally there would have been no sickness or death. I like to think so at least. If there is a heaven, I can imagine that all of the animals, birds, insects, sea life--all the creatures that we have loved, crossed paths with or had some kind of relationship with (e.g. bees and birds in a garden) are there to greet us and to accompany us as companions in our new life. In fact, if I think about what heaven might actually be, it is a garden, always a garden, filled with flowers, fruit, vegetables, birds, bees, insects and animals of all kinds. But there would have to be a place for octopuses too, after having seen My Octopus Teacher. 

Beautiful and touching film--My Octopus Teacher | Official Trailer | Netflix

Any words I could use to describe this documentary film about a filmmaker's daily interactions with an octopus would not do it justice. He says so himself that he fell in love with this amazing creature. It is an amazing film on all levels--emotional, psychological, technical and topical. It is a beautiful film, and all I will do in this post is recommend that you watch it. I will probably watch it many times; I want to commit each part to memory and cherish all of them.

Problems, pain, and the mind-body connection

I've been thinking a lot about this lately and have recently discussed it with one of my younger friends who suffers from arthritis and other health issues. The mind-body connection is strong and not to be ignored. Of course sometimes we don't create our own problems; sometimes they are dumped on us by others, or sometimes we simply have no choice. For example, if a loved one becomes very sick and/or dies, there can be all sorts of problems that will impact us in a painful way. I know that's not what Tolle is referring to; he's referring more to our daily lives and how to keep unnecessary pain at bay by not creating mountains out of molehills. Or by not getting involved in others' dramas and idiocy. And he's right. It's just remembering that piece of advice that is the problem. Not always easy. 

Stillness and inner peace

This is what I wish for personally and for all the people I know and love. There is not enough inner peace, not enough stillness in these times. Without them, craziness reigns. 

To dare greatly in these times

You'll have to bear with me during these pre-election times. The USA is so polarized at present; I have not seen anything quite like it before in my lifetime. The Vietnam War is possibly the closest we've come to something like this, but it pales in comparison, because the poles now are just so extreme. Marriages and friendships are being severely tested and even destroyed by the prospect of a divisive man being given four more years to rule by the people. There is hatred on both sides for the other side--true hatred. There are threats of civil war, of DT not leaving the White House peacefully if he should lose. There are fears that his cult (as his followers are called) will rise up and become violent. What the hell happened to the USA I know and love? I am hoping that all of it is a lot of talk, but you can never be sure nowadays. But normal law-abiding people need to dare to take their country back, out of the hands of racists, white supremacists, and gun-toting militia men. They need to do that by using the intelligence and common sense they were given. That means righting the wrongs and re-establishing a balance that is sorely needed. It means plain hard talk--put away the guns, the rhetoric, the violence, the threat of violence, the aggression, and the stupidity. It means sitting down and working together to change society, because that is what our founding fathers would have wanted and had in mind when they drew up the Constitution. They did not want to be subject to a king any longer; and in 2020, we will not be served well as a country by ushering in an autocracy to solve the problems that exist. All countries have problems, but most are not choosing willingly to go down the path that the USA is taking.

Cicero's quote about Bread and Circuses

 

Reflections on what was and what can no longer be, and how important it is to remain awake

I was on Twitter the other day; I have an account from back in the days when I was working for the science library at the University of Oslo. Twitter is dominated these days by political tweets, most of them having to do with the upcoming presidential election. Both sides are at it, furiously attacking and condemning the other side. One of the tweeters is Rob Reiner, the actor who played Michael Stivic in the sitcom All in the Family that ran from 1971-79 on American television. Reiner is rabidly anti-Trump, and it struck me the other day how his character Michael and Archie Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor) would probably have been at each other's throats over Trump's presidency had the sitcom appeared now. One thing always leads to another; I googled the show's theme song Those Were the Days to read the lyrics, and realized that the America presented in the lyrics is perhaps the America that Trump supporters want a return to. Unlikely? I don't think so the more I think about it. But there is no returning to what was, ever. Since 1979, the world has seen the rise of the digital age, cell phones, internet, and social media. The way we live our lives is completely different than how we did growing up in the 1960s and 70s. Television is not even what it once was. It is no longer a medium for social change; it merely reflects the vacuity of modern society with the majority of its programming. If we're busy watching mindless television like reality-TV programs, then we won't be paying attention to what goes on around us, or to the power-grabbers and would-be dictators. Google 'Bread and Circuses' to read about how easily people can be pacified (lulled into a stupor) with food and entertainment, whether it be from their government or from societal institutions/businesses whose sole goal is to create addicts who won't and don't think in the name of greed. And if not greed, you could wonder what the goal is. If we readily give up our free will and ability to think for ourselves, we will find that it will not be easy to get them back, especially if our country moves toward autocracy. 

The world waits for no one, and change is the only constant in life, whether or not you like it. You can be a reactionary; it won't matter because the world will not wait for you anyway. You can work to create the type of world you'd like, but I'm not sure we'd want an Archie Bunker world as our reality. Women and minorities would be most affected (subjugated) by it.

Here are the lyrics to Those Were the Days; you can judge for yourself whether this is the America that Trump supporters want a return to. As always--my opinion. Others are entitled to their opinions, because that is the basis for our democracy. Let's hope the USA remains one. 

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played

songs that made the hit parade
Guys like me we had it made
Those were the days

Didn't need no welfare state
ev'rybody pulled his weight
gee our old LaSalle ran great
Those were the days

And you knew who you were then
girls were girls and men were men
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again

People seemed to be content

fifty dollars paid the rent
freaks were in a circus tent
Those were the days

Take a little Sunday spin

go to watch the Dodgers win
Have yourself a dandy day
that cost you under a fin

Hair was short and skirts were long
Kate Smith really sold a song
I don't know just what went wrong
those were the days

Songwriters: Charles Strouse / Lee Adams

Can't wait for this year to be over

I cannot wait for the American election to be over. Cannot wait. Cannot wait until we can return to some semblance of sanity in our daily lives. Everywhere you turn, in every country on the globe (it seems), the election dominates the news. That tells you how important it is. But it also tells you how nuts it's become. I live abroad as you know, and will vote from here. By mail, because the United States Postal System works. It works, has worked, and will continue to work. But it will fall apart if the president wills it. If service has slowed up, it's because of the pandemic. The Norwegian postal system has slowed up as well since the pandemic began. 

I am just so tired of hearing about DT at every turn. Sick to death of him, sick to death of his sycophants. He's invaded daily life here, so I shudder to imagine how bad it's become over there. I just know that we cannot go on like this. His presidency pits and has pitted people against each other, affecting marriages and friendships. It makes people mistrust other people and mistrust federal institutions that the country relies on. If there are real problems in those institutions, then FIX them. Don't create a civil war because of them. There are people I know who fear that DT won't leave the White House peacefully if he loses. Have we really come to this as a country? Do you know how ridiculous it sounds from here, except that I know it's happened before in other autocratic countries and will happen again. I just didn't expect to consider that it would happen in America, my country. For heaven's sake, get a grip, people, before it is too late. I hope he wins the peace prize just so that WE can get some peace again. Then he can say that he got what Obama got, since that's all he does--compete with Obama--and then maybe we can be rid of him for good. He can enjoy the flattery for a few weeks and then we can move on with our lives. And hopefully never have to hear about him and his family ever again. 

I cannot wait for 2020 to be over. I cannot wait for all of the negative things to cease. The pandemic. Those who claim it is a hoax to destroy DT. Young people who ignore social distancing. Adults who do likewise. We need a vaccine against the virus, but then there are the anti-vaxxers to contend with. Workplaces that continue to plan for open-office landscapes when they know that viruses will spread like wildfire among those who sit there. A lot of unemployment. Greed. More greed. Never a mention of what Christ might want for the world. Sycophants who once worked for and were fired by DT, who cash in by writing tell-all books. Why didn't they have the balls to stand up to him publicly when they worked for him? Say straight to his face that he's wrong, uninformed, and ignorant about so many issues. Continue to say it. Why didn't they do that then? The books just confirm what anyone with any common sense already knows--he's unfit for the office of presidency. 

The saving grace has been my garden, but even there, there is stupidity--people complaining that there are too many honey bees flying around. I mean really. It's like complaining that there are too many birds, or earthworms, or soil that can get your hands dirty. We're in a garden for heaven sakes. Our beekeeper quit recently, and there are no plans to replace him. There are people who don't want hives or beekeepers because that will mean more bees in their gardens. I mean, really. The bees are there to help our gardens and us gardeners. They are not aggressive, they are rather wonderful little creatures with which one can peacefully co-exist, like bumblebees. Like Joni Mitchell wrote, "My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species." Mine is not broken, not yet. We'll see what 2021 brings. 

Quotes about stupidity

I'm posting some quotes about stupidity today, because the stupidity I see around me has really started to get to me. I don't understand how educated people can behave so stupidly in some instances, and I don't understand how some people won't use their God-given intelligence. They would rather follow a leader slavishly than use their brains and their conscience to figure out the right path for them to follow. They refuse to follow the words of Christ, yet will unthinkingly follow the words of men who are far from Christian. They don't see the hypocrisy of their situation. They don't acknowledge the lying, the self-deception, the polarization they see around them, created by the men (often quite stupid themselves) that they worship. The first and last quotes offer hope to those who want to deal with and get past the stupidity of others, and perhaps in oneself as well. 

·        The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty. --John Steinbeck

·        Stupidity really gets me going, when it's just plain stupid, obvious stupidity. --Lewis Black

·        Scientists will eventually stop flailing around with solar power and focus their efforts on harnessing the only truly unlimited source of energy on the planet: stupidity. I predict that in the future, scientists will learn how to convert stupidity into clean fuel. --Scott Adams

·        We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet. --Stephen Hawking

·        There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. --Frank Zappa

·        Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. --Frank Zappa

·        My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. --Joni Mitchell

·        The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity. --Arthur Schopenhauer

·        The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. --Milan Kundera

·        The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois. --Gustave Flaubert

·        No sooner does man discover intelligence than he tries to involve it in his own stupidity. --Jacques Yves Cousteau

·        Alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity. --Sammy Davis, Jr.

·        That's how I was taught. That's how I was raised, to ignore the stupidity, continue on and do what I need to do. --Bubba Wallace

Summing up and getting ready to move on

This article resonated with me: Why Are Men Still Explaining Things to Women?   https://tinyurl.com/yxnvabr2

This has been my experience in academia for so many years, I can't count them. How many times my expertise has been ignored by men who need to explain to me how it really works. How many times I've laughed it off, retorted with a sardonic comment, or simply stood there and accepted the idiocy of it all. Mostly the latter. How many times have I done that? How many times have I kept my mouth shut, when I should have opened it and said 'please please please please please stop talking' (like the woman in Hemingway's story). I should have said that so many times, instead of stewing about the injustice and idiocy of it all. What I have done is discussed it with other women, ad nauseam. Today in fact was another such conversation with a woman twenty years younger than me, who has been raised to be respectful and to defer to her elders. In academia, that means to older white men. She has been rudely treated by her doctoral mentor, and he continues to behave that way toward her, even when she has called him on it in a respectful way. I have also called him on it several times. He simply doesn't and won't listen. So many of his type of men are rude, crude, arrogant and conceited. They truly think they know it all. And really, how could we expect them to think any other way when very few people (men or women) have ever challenged them on anything? These men don't know what it is like to be corrected for anything they do, and they don't like it when someone tries. I tried when I was younger, but ended up being labeled as difficult. I was told to smile more. I was told that they knew best. The problem was that they didn't. Sometimes they knew best. Statistics would back that up. No one knows best all of the time. Sometimes they knew best, sometimes they didn't. I have watched men open their mouths and stick their foot in them so many times, I've lost count. They rarely apologized for their arrogant or boorish behavior. Rarely apologized for shouting people down, talking over them, interrupting them, finishing their sentences, destroying their thought processes--in other words, rarely apologized for their bad behavior. In nearly all the cases I've seen in academia, the people they did this to were women--PhD students and post-docs. You take a lot of crap in academia, and you might think you'd be prepared for some of it based on how the world is and has been toward women over the years. But you're not prepared to be told that you're essentially ignorant when you know the opposite is true. You're not prepared to be told to keep your mouth shut as has happened to me several times in the past couple of years when I tried to correct someone's rude and humiliating behavior toward women who were simply trying to be professional about finishing their doctoral work. This particular man was irritated because his student wanted to 'discuss' some ideas with him; he thought she should just accept his ideas as the correct ones. These men are pathetic. They are threatened by women, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why, because these men sit in the positions of power and prestige, not the women they treat like crap. I think what sets them off is the knowledge that some women (like me and the doctoral student) cannot and will not be broken by these men. That was tried on me to no avail when I was younger. My will and my soul would simply not be broken. What is the meaning in that? The meaning in it is that God has a purpose for those lives. God did not want me to be broken. So if I ended up where I am supposed to be, then my life has had meaning. I have stood up for what I thought was fair and just and right. I have dared to correct men, to contradict them, to state my own opinions, to believe in my own ideas. I am proud of myself, proud that I believed in my own ideas and the ideas of other women. My most cited article, and the one that I am most proud of, was one that was rudely ridiculed by a male reviewer. Rather than being crushed by the review, I became livid. I wrote to the editor of the journal to which I had submitted my article, to criticize him for allowing such a review to reach an author. It caused all sorts of repercussions, for which I am glad to this day. I doubt that the editor had ever received a letter like the one he received from me. I still have the letter I wrote and the response I received from that editor. I should have framed both. But it was a glaring indication that I was the author of research work that had threatened the reviewer, one of the reigning gurus in the field, and that was over twenty years ago. Another example of the same was when I thought I was having an interesting conversation at a conference dinner with a well-known Norwegian professor about a particular signaling pathway and the expertise my research group had with how to detect proteins on that pathway. I don't remember if I offered advice or help with some of the detection methods, but my God, how insulted he became. How dare I assume that he needed help. He regaled the entire dinner table with how rude Americans were and how rudely they had treated his sister when she had been studying in the USA. The saving grace of that experience was the Norwegian women who supported me and who later told me privately that he was an arrogant asshole. They laughed at him behind his back. But no one dared stand up to him at the dinner table; he was allowed to be rude to me. 

So many 'learned men' in academia are always saying how the reigning gurus in the field in which they themselves work are wrong and that they instead are right. It's envy; they all want to be the reigning gurus. The most disappointing aspect of academia was finding out that there is very little real thinking going on. The search for truth is sidestepped in the quest for power, prestige, and money. Most of the intellectually-stimulating and creative discussions I've had, have occurred outside of academia, with non-academics. Perhaps it's always been that way. I am so glad I am nearing the end of my academic career. I will not miss the male privilege and the bad behavior, the arrogance, the rudeness, the lack of creativity and the lack of real thinking. I will not miss the staid way of doing things. I will not miss the dinosaurs. And I am fairly certain that they will not miss me. 

Love this song--J. Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, Tainy - UN DIA (ONE DAY)

 Beautiful song and lyrics........

UN DIA (ONE DAY)

Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, ...

You know that sometimes
I think about us now and then
But I never wanna fall again, ah-ah-ah
Yo no te quisiera olvidar (eh-eh)
Pero contigo es todo o na' (eh-eh)
Yeah-yeah

You're deep in the water, yeah, you're drownin' us
You question my love like it's not enough
But I hate that you know, you know, you know
You got me tied up
You regret it now, but it's your mistake
What makes you think that my mind will change?
And you hate that you know, you know, you know
You know you messed up

One day you'll love me again
One day you'll love me for sure
One day you'll wake up feelin' how I've been feelin'
Baby, you'll knock at my door
One day you'll love me again
Hug me again 'til the end
One day you'll beg me to try
One day you'll realize I'm more than your lover
I'm more than your lover, I'm your friend

Acércate un poquito nomá'
Que yo quiero que te quedes conmigo
Deja a tus amiga' allá atrás
Que no' vamos en un viaje escondido'
No' vamo' pa' Turks and Caicos
Y ahí calmamo' las ganas
Suéltate conmigo, mamá
Que ya no hay marcha atrás
Una noche sin ti
No es tan fácil, baby
Que yo soy pa' ti
Y tú eres pa' mí

Nunca me dejes de querer
Oh, na-na-na
Contigo por siempre, baby
No quiero dejarte esta vez

One day you'll love me again
One day you'll love me for sure
One day you'll wake up feelin' how I've been feelin'
Baby, you'll knock at my door
One day you'll love me again
Hug me again 'til the end
One day you'll beg me to try
One day you'll realize I'm more than your lover (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'm more than your lover, I'm your friend

Yo sé que estoy en tu corazón, quizás en el fondo
Otra baby me escribe, nunca le respondo (no)
La vida da vuelta' y el mundo es redondo
Y yo voy a que te beso de nuevo en London
O si no en Marbella (wuh)
Encima de la arena viendo las estrella'
Yo sé que ni la' ola' han borrao' mi huella (yeh)
Pero tu pichaera es lo que me atropella
Sol, playa y en la arena, vamo' allá (wuh)
Baby, no te quedes callá'
Yo sé que tú quiere' guayar conmigo
Otra vez me tienes en depresión
Fumando en la habitación, eh
Pero yo sé que

One day you'll love me again (wuh)
One day you'll love me for sure
One day you'll wake up feelin' how I've been feelin'
Baby, you'll knock at my door
One day you'll love me again
Hug me again 'til the end
One day you'll beg me to try
One day you'll realize I'm more than your lover
I'm more than your lover, I'm your friend

Baby (ay-ay-ay-aye)
One day you'll love me again
One day you'll realize I'm more than your lover
I'm more than your lover, I'm your friend
J Balvin, man
Bad Bunny, baby
Tainy
Latino Gang (yeah)
La Familia

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Alejandro Borrero / Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio / Clarence Coffee / Daystar Peterson / Dua Lipa / Ivanni Rodríguez / José Álvaro Osorio Balvin / Marcos Efraín Masis

UN DIA (ONE DAY) lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Things are going downhill

Six months into the pandemic, and things are starting to go downhill in terms of how people behave or do their jobs. I'm not sure why, but a good indication is that most (young) people seem to have forgotten how to social distance. There are very few of them that remember to do so, and it is always me who has to move away from them if I meet them on the sidewalk or in a store. It's incredibly annoying. Add to that the ones who hold parties with many people, and you get the picture. For them, the pandemic is over, if it ever even occurred. They are hopeless cases. Case in point: the recent bunker party that nearly ended in the deaths of many of the attendees. In my opinion, not only is there a coronavirus pandemic, but there's an epidemic of stupidity and idiocy. You can read about this incredibly stupid rave party here:   https://www.newsinenglish.no/2020/08/31/two-charged-after-illegal-bunker-party/

There are other things that have happened during the past two weeks that are an indication that people's attention spans are getting less focused and that work output is getting sloppier. The first situation concerns online shopping; I know that a lot of people are shopping on the web now, so there is probably a backlog of orders most places. I ordered four items two weeks ago from an online pharmacy here in Norway. I have ordered from before (three times) without any problems. This time, my order was not confirmed and I had to contact them to get a confirmation. Then today, I got my shipment, but it was someone else's order, so now I am in the process of trying to contact the company via telephone to find out how to return the items at no cost to me. Of course I was put on hold, because as always, there is always a long queue of people waiting to be served, which I never believe is the reality. It's rather that they only have one or two persons dealing with telephone customer service. They would prefer that you contacted them by email or used their chatbot function (which is a piece of garbage). Finally I got through, and of course the onus is on me to prove that I got the wrong shipment. I had to take photos of what I received and photos of the box the items were sent in, and send an email with the photos to customer service. I did all that, so now I wait to see what happens. I cancelled my original order and asked for a refund. I have no patience for this crap. 

Today, out of the blue, I got tossed off my hospital's email server--no warning, no explanation, no nothing. So now I have no functioning email account and cannot receive emails from people. I have two work email accounts, none of which can be accessed from home. It's pathetic. The IT service people are trying to help but they have no idea what's wrong. It won't be solved; just an intuition, but the explanations that have been advanced so far don't hold water. I could connect early this morning, and then suddenly around mid-morning, I couldn't. Go figure. It's a good thing I am retiring sooner than later, because I no longer have any patience for this. And hopefully this isn't an omen for how the rest of the week is going to be. But you never know. 

 

Reflections on hope and Pandora's box

We read the fable about Pandora’s Box when we were children, and it made an impression on me all those years ago that remains to this day. How could a woman who was entrusted with a box containing all the evils and illnesses in the world, open that very box and release them to the world? Was it curiosity that drove her, or was she tainted by evil herself? She only managed to close the box before Hope escaped, so that Hope remained in the box, presumably to ensure that mankind’s destruction was not sealed. Of course one could wonder why Hope was sealed into a box with all the world’s evils and illnesses, but that is not what this post is concerned with today. 

I am reminded of this fable because of the current political situation in America. It seems to me that our current president has opened the same box containing all the evils and sicknesses in the world. They’ve all come rushing out—bigotry, hatred, anger, aggression, white supremacy, lack of empathy, hypocrisy, lying, cheating, disregard for the weak, among others. These evils dominate our media on a daily basis, and ultimately, dominate our daily lives. We wake up, live, breathe, eat, and go to sleep with them. They wear us down, erode our patience, destroy our internal peace, destroy relationships, and create chaos. If you don’t believe me, just take a look around you and peruse social media or your daily newspaper. Or talk to your friends and family members about what is going on. It is clear to me that the president is very good at creating chaos and then benefitting from it in one way or another. If we don’t wake up soon, we are headed for anarchy, and it will be primarily his fault, for opening a box that should have remained shut. I read a good article yesterday written by a journalist who longed for a 'boring' presidency; by that he meant that he longed for a president who doesn't dominate our daily lives the way the current one does. He longed for a president who doesn't foment hatred and chaos. He longed for a president who just governed quietly and calmly without all the hype, PR, tweeting, hypocrisy, and lying. I agree with him wholeheartedly. 

The only thing I’m not quite sure of is whether Hope remains in the box that has been opened. Hope. What is it really? Is it blind optimism? Is it faith in something better for the future? Is it an ordinary human trait, innate in our personality? I’d like to think so. Is it unrealistic? At times, probably. But in dire situations, it’s all we have. We have to hope and trust that things will get better. But when you take a look at other countries in the world, bad situations don’t get better overnight. Sometimes it takes half a century or more for a country to get out from under a brutal dictator, or for a country to rise up from poverty and starvation. Many times they don’t get there without help from other countries. Those other countries have hope that things can be better, and they help because they know situations can change for the better. 

Those of us who live in democracies know that things can get better. We have a say in how our countries should be run, and they should not be run by dictators. If we truly want change, we have to hope and plan for change. We have to trust that change is possible. We have to use our vote to ensure that change. A vote against the man who opened up the box of evils is a good start. We need to restore order where there is chaos, peace where there is discord, kindness where there is brutality, and civility where there is disrespect. If we don’t do this soon, we have no one to blame but ourselves. 

 

Autumn's call

 

I love this beautiful illustration and text about autumn. The illustration was done by Danielle Barlow; she has done illustrations with accompanying texts for each season. I just checked out her website and it is so worth visiting:   https://www.daniellebarlowart.com/    

Enjoy!

Just so spot on, from Stephan Pastis

 

The bird bath is a popular meeting place

A few days ago, it was the sparrows who were enjoying a communal bath in the birdbath in the garden. Today, it was a meeting place for many of the garden's honeybees who were eagerly drinking the water. It was a warm and dry day, so that was probably the explanation for why there were so many (at one point I counted up to sixteen bees sitting on the rim of the bath). I have never seen so many of them gathered at the 'drinking hole' before. They were buzzing to and fro, landing on the rim of the bath and then taking off again. A few of them ended up in the water, twirling about like whirligigs. If they don't get find their way out of the water quickly, they can drown. So I have helped them out a few times, offering a (gloved) finger or a stick for them to climb on. They grab on eagerly, and if they're not too waterlogged, they fly away fairly quickly, which always makes me happy. This is a video of the bees today in the garden. 

Past the halfway mark and moving toward 2021

 

Sparrows having a communal bird bath in the garden today

This is the second time I've seen the sparrows do this. The first time was about a month ago and I tried filming them but something didn't work out right and the videos I took were blank. Today I managed to shoot three short videos of them enjoying their bath, splashing around. When they're done, there are huge drops of water all over the place. They are an endless source of entertainment--I love watching them. 

Are we great yet?

Couldn't resist this, it's just so spot on. I thought Trump was supposed to be making America great again these past four years. What an epic failure that project turned out to be. Just take a look at today's America and ask yourself--are we great yet? Are we better off than we were four years ago? The answer is unequivocally NO.

Some photos from a late August garden

Some photos of the garden from this past Saturday. Enjoy!