Cow, Pigs, Wars and Witches in everyone's neck of the Woods

Good long awaited Morning,

I think writer's block hits us all, though for me it's for want of focus on the writing, not for ideas.  Music itself energizes and emphasizes the flavors in life all around us, opening our minds to unsought insights, joys and contemplations.

So, after seven silent weeks, why would I use the subject line of Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture, the famous anthropoligical  book by Marvin Harris, as fodder for today's blog?  I mean, I have several adolescent trees near our leach field that need removal and transplant onto a hillside.  Don't I have better things to accomplish on a Saturday morning?

Yes and no.  Maybe Mr. Harris, who taught Young College Jose about cargo cults and disbelieving that all gold is golden, never left my mind.

I wondered this week about cows, as we debated the neighbor's wisdom in buying 3 pregnant cows as pets for his young kids; he grew up in a dairy farming family, so the species choice sort of makes sense.  But moo'ing and poop'ing cows in one's front yard?  It's their life, though, and we hope they enjoy the cows!

Pigs are everywhere, especially the Pigs of War who can't be happy we've just about lost another round against the bad guys and now are scouring Africa and the Middle East for someplace else to throw away our younger folks' health, ambitions and maybe lives, not to mention more precious tax dollars.  Haven't we enough to do here in our splendid US of A?

A truer War is essentially all around us as we struggle to uphold and celebrate those values that got us here.  Mental illness, mass shootings, and incivility all are things to be fought in a positive, meaningful way.  Me personally, I hear it from places like friends on the phone, the societal debacle that is Detroit, and in the chronically poor whom government of all flavors hasn't raised up.  We must fight on.

And Witches.  Maybe the Evangelical Right has it right and my beliefs, and that of our multi-million member church, have it flat wrong.  I don't see gays and Muslims and etc. as the devil.  Am I to listen to an acquaintance and avoid Ellen DeGeneres because she's gay, and ignore her well-known on-air outreaches to struggling women in need?  That type of stereotyping, especially by people I've met and somewhat like, repels me.  But maybe I've learned and 'felt' the Scriptures wrongly, and God does not really love and cherish us all.  Or maybe the witches are actually someone else, those casters of stones? I wait to be enlightened.

No railing, no flame, no anger today.  Just maybe aggravation that too often we ignore the tough social issues and thus make them ever more difficult to resolve and blend solutions and acceptance into our society.  So many calls to action:  pick one, let's say something like gun ownership, advocating for the poor, or for- or against- gay marriage.  Be willing to listen, to study history and to reflect before contacting your legislators and writing those protest placards.  It helps you grow and helps the rest of us learn -- there are many folks ready to listen.

There are other People who listen to the Wind

Now, I’m not talented like a classy British fellow below, but always have admired him.  'Steven Demetre Georgiou.'  Did you know this London-raised fellow's father was Greek-Cypriot and his mom was Swedish?  

His way of following the wind is deeper than mine, and oh so much more eloquent.  So I share with you this brief beyond-a-thought, shard-of-a-wisp-of-a-glimpse into a swirling universe:

                I listen to the wind

                To the wind of my soul

                Where I’ll end up, well, I think

                Only God really knows.

                I've sat upon the setting sun

                But never, never, never, never

                I never wanted water once

    No, never, never, never.

                                                … Cat Stevens

Remembering – and Celebrating – Ranger Kenny Hartman

There are times to be glib, to be lighthearted or flippant.  And there are times to take life as-is, as it comes along, “good” or “bad,” as it gives and takes at its own cold pace.

So it is with my friend Kenny, lately with us and with the Maryland Park Service (MPS).  He passed away in early December, with that same spirit that inspired me to become a much stronger volunteer for MPS.  What did he do when diagnosed a year ago with pancreatic cancer?  No chemo for Kenny – he pressed on with his Caribbean cruise with his friends as long planned so they wouldn't be depressed about it.  He always was full of smiles and a good spirit, along with a Disney Corp.-taught knack for improving everything around him while keeping all the key folks on-board with his vision. 

The world is a bit more somber, a bit less cheery without my friend Kenny.  I wish him the colors of heaven, the horns of triumph, and a bit of sod that even there he can improve.

Wanting It All

Just two quick thoughts today:

1. If a tree falls in the forest... ...someone probably has an opinion on it.  Even far away from DC.  
2. “I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life.  The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want.” … Mark Twain

Taking in 'Life in the Making'

Gentle Reader,

 

I thanked you just last week for staying tuned to my Two Medicine Man blog.  While I meant it, I often find other blogs in the Blogosphere to be amazing for any number of the creative, graphical and touching ways they pique our interest and delve into our shared humanity.

 

Today, let's celebrate one of those blogs.  It's entitled 'Life in the Making' and I found it downright zap-insightful and Joni-approved charming.  It brings me into author Anne's seaside world of wonders and beautiful photos.  

I encourage you to check it out at:  

http://likewaterinwater.blogspot.com/

 

From the land of never-melting snow and 12-degree high temp's (but no complaints)

     ~ Jose

Slingshots of Random Wonderings

On the topic of my walk-abouts… while I stroll along the canal, I wonder why we all wonder, and what we wonder about wondering.  Maybe that’s about as clear as wondering about why cats do what they do — HAH, you let me know how that goes!

By the way, I took advantage of my holiday time off to listen to my new Aerosmith CD.  Loudly as befits the music.  And I highly recommend it, Music from a New Dimension, as they’ve long ago left the booze and drugs behind and now deliver some powerful chords and an interesting vibe that makes sense to me.  Helps set a lively mood and energy level too.

So I wonder about why I didn’t disturb Mr Bunny Wabbit as our dog and I walked by?  He looked just like a chocolate Easter bunny silhouetted against the snowy hillside.  We slowed down so I could check him out and since the dog didn’t see him, we left him alone.  Neat.  Guess I didn’t want to wreck the silent ambience?

I wonder about animal tracks, or the lack thereof.  Have they vacated the neighborhood or gone underground?  I wonder about irrigation canals; since they’re dry in the winter, why don’t more animals slink along them?  I wonder about the weather inversions we’ve constantly gotten since winter began — why here more than any other northern tier state we’ve lived in?  I wonder about people who don’t slow down despite bad weather, and whether they’re closet self-destructive.  I wonder what makes us tick and why (some of us) find solace and inspiration from walking outside in mid-20’s when the house was perfectly toasty and full of fun family members.

You know what I don’t wonder?  I do not wonder why I’m wondering about these trivial things since I’m truly glad I have the head-space to even ponder them.  Life is not perfect but being at home with my family those two weeks has shown me it’s not perfect, but a pretty darned good life…

Today’s Compassionate Moment:  “When your science teacher smashed a frozen rose with a hammer, did you warm the petals to bring them back to life?”

Jumping into Snake River: a new Look for 2013

"It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever."
     ~ President Jimmy Carter (a true hero in a messed-up world)

Can I better sum up the tangents, twists and ramblings of our lives?  I took advantage of 2013 and our recent move to retool my blog site.  It was boring me to tears, so I amp'd it up a bit.  I'll try to make it even more interesting in the near future.  But I keep in mind it's a window and what you see on the other side needs to be worthwhile, not jazzed-up empty words about nothing.

The best to all of you in 2013 -- you may not be a butterfly hatching from a cocoon, but nonetheless get out there and live your dream whenever you can.

P.S.  This new picture is from the nearby Snake River, an authentic part of our new milieu.

Observations from the Trails of Rural Life

(This post was written the other day and, sad to say, I avoided going online so it never got sent!  Happiest of New Years to your families and you - I know we ourselves are looking forward to an interesting, or least odd, year ahead).

Anyway, back to the blog post ... It’s so easy to read into so much.  Listening to the wind, kissing the sun, and having the scents and smells of the area permeate into my psyche mean, well, lots of deep thoughts.  Or just weird wanderings of the mind.  You decide.

·         Being higher up, 2300 ft. elevation, really does mean the moon looks closer.  So weird but so true.

·         When having plain ugly dirt for the four-acre backyard is today’s reality, it’s an exciting thing when you flip it on its head, knowing that instead it’s a blank tableau awaiting us to finish our first County Extension two classes: Living for the Land, and Victory Garden

·         This is the first place ever that I find holes in the ground to be fascinating – moles, foxes, whistle pigs or badgers?  And why so interesting – is that saying my walks are getting too boring?

·         Coyote howls are fascinating when they triangulate around you and you’re (reasonably) sure they won’t have you on the menu.  Especially when they’re the same size as your bad-attitude 60-lb dog.  Bring it on — I could use a pelt!

·         Christmas cookies are the perfect entendre to meeting neighbors, who in this spread-out area sometimes haven’t met one another in several years … we have become ambassadors.

On the Cusp of 50, a Smile

So, I got hit by the flu on Sunday the 16^th, so spent most of that week either on sick leave or feeling brain-dead.  Then tonight I took one of our dogs for a walk and WHAM!, my awareness of the world around me reawakens.  I’ll be 50 in six hours!!

I don’t know where to start with the appreciation, insights and thanks over my last fifty annum.  Tonight’s hour-long dog walk, under a startling full moon rising above my distant house, slowly etched the answer into me.  The journey started long ago with my parents and the credit rightfully goes to them – and the blame for anything not exemplary falls on me.

I won’t pretend tonight to any eloquence of insight or language.  We all can, and do, thank our parents (though maybe often enough?), so please indulge me on this short list of things oft appreciated over 50 years but not shared:

·         Meshing that genealogy!  Mom is one-half Dutch and one-half German, a German ‘refugee child’ that post-WW2, with its European angers and barbed wire fences, caused to be raised far from either family’s home grounds.  Charming, smart and thoughtful.  Dad is pure Puerto Rican – a man’s man who likes a challenge and has a mind that won’t stop.  I am the product of their devotion and I hope the best of both rubbed off on me.

·         Crabbing from a dock in Delaware.  When you’re a child, it’s neat and simple fun.  When you’re my age and never did so with your own now-adult children, you appreciate that it maybe wasn’t so simple.

·         Summer-camping along the Atlantic seacoast of the Netherlands.  Sun, sand, dunes and adventures on a scale that I only recently could appreciate.

·         Recycling.  Seriously – recycling!  In northern Virginia, I was encouraged as a young teen to pick up cans and bottles when I was manically bicycling around the area.  A good use for my time and man, did I make some change in my free time!  I now am an ardent conservationist, a testament to that fledgling habit of taking care of the world right around me.

·         Welcoming me home during college.  The doors were open, even though I was such a pain in the butt and too self-absorbed to be much fun.  But I looked forward to those down days in our living room, where the world was quiet and made more sense.

·         Sharing the stereo.  I was of the vintage Led Zeppelin era.  Talk about culture shock for my parents with their more refined tastes of Elvis, Motown and Marty Robbins.  But they indulged me – and yesterday’s Kennedy Center Awards show featuring Zep proves my life-shaping affinity for their music wasn’t all such a bad thing.

·         See the world!  That lesson was given by parents who walked-the-talk.  After college, Michele and I left the Catskills for reasons that pushed us past the beauty around us.  As I sit and stroll around western Idaho tonight, I’d say the lesson was well-learned and the right one.

I see.  I feel.  I walk and think and talk.  I turn 50.  And my rich and interesting childhood was the launching point for all of this.  Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all those intangible things you lived and shared with us kids, ones that made me what I am today.  Wow, just wow …

Moving into Ludicrous Speed

Happy T-Day to everyone!   And before I go back to my previously-written silly blog post, I send my prayers and strength go out to Terri and her family, who are at a hospice today spending deeply meaningful time with her grandmother.

After watching today's Macy’s parade, I feel thankful for several things.  Or maybe not as thankful but appreciating things in our world?

·         Parades that nicely mix the new and the old so all of us stayed glued to the tube

·         Even the worst NCAA 1-A (larger school) college teams get some primetime though bummer that it’s on a holiday (Idaho vs. New Mex State)

·         Coyotes running across your backyard in mid-afternoon (seriously, it happened to us, so having five acres may have unintended consequences)

·         Conversely, having numerous peregrine falcons and hawks always perched on our roadside fences and power poles – WOW!

·         Having nothing better to do than watching Spaceballs after the parade

·         Paying only $68 for registering our van — and that includes a $10 prepayment for unlimited admission to Idaho’s state parks in 2013

·         Long granite counters that mean ‘spreading out the spread’ is a no-brainer

·         Again having a Siamese Fighting Fish (beta), whom I’ve named Toomtam Jennarong

·         And, just having celebrated w/Michele our 28^th ‘legal year,’ time that doesn’t count the 4.5 years of dating and engagement.  Wow, just wow, I am not worthy …

So, there you have it on a mid-40’s sparkly-clear day near the northern Rocky Mountains.  President Skroob, Lord Dark Helmet and all my friends on Planet Druidia send you our best wishes.  Don’t forget to take time to play with your dolls (or watch the Spaceballs movie and figure out what I’m talking about here)!

P.S.   Here’s another movie quote:  “ Push the Self-Destruct Button, but only if you really, really mean it”