1/26/09:
Hope. Some history from Wikipedia: "Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis. When Pandora opened Pandora's Box, she let out all the evils except one: hope. Apparently, the Greeks considered hope to be as dangerous as all the world's evils. But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well. It may be worthy to note that in the story, hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils. In some faiths and religions of the world, hope plays a very important role. Hope can be passive in the sense of a wish, or active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea."
Click on the Grinch to see the recent liberation of the US State Department, at least that is what it looks like...
One way or another, power over others always turns out to be a costly burden. A sense of one's own strength, and freedom to do with it what you will, brings with it a feeling of expansiveness, of exultation. If the realm in which this power is to be realized is turned toward the creative possibilities of the self, then the excitement and joy become possible. But, if this freedom is experienced as power over others, both parties will be trapped. It does not matter whether the power is used benevolently or for exploitation, the result is the same. If I see other adults as weaker than I am in our personal relationships, it does not matter whether they volunteer to be wards whom I must protect or victims whom I am to exploit. If I conspire with them to the illusion of either sort of power, whether benign or malevolent, we will both be trapped in a symbiotic bargain. My sense of power over others will limit my freedom to live out my wishes for myself. Either I will be obligated to take care of my wards, or I will have to waste myself in putting down mutinous serfs and guarding against victims who would retaliate.— Sheldon B. Kopp,
If you Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him!
1/24/09:
We have continued to have weather that is cold for us, not so much in how low the daily temperature has gone but in how long, day after day, the nights have dipped below freezing. This past week has seen a lot of foggy days as well, some days never clearing. I don't know as I have ever seen the fog at the same time as the freezing temperatures– freezing fog. The fog clings to your car windshield as usual, not as small droplets of water that fog up your view but as small droplets of frozen water, sheeting on your windshield. The frozen fog also clings to everything outdoors, creating prettily-frosted tree limbs and chilling the human body to the bone. Click on the picture of frozen fog for a cold weather cartoon.
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.
Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.
When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.
Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.
— Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson
1/21/09:
I wrote the first entry for this month, the first entry for this year, with yesterday in mind. Over and over yesterday people were interviewed about the Obama inauguration, over and over words of hope flowed from eager lips. Yes, to have a President who says we are all Americans. Can you believe it? A President who wants to hear and consider all sides, who does not attempt to stifle input by accusing people of not being true Americans, questioning our patriotism when we hold views other than his own. Can you believe it? I am thankful to once again be consider a part of this country.
As so many have said, I never thought I would live to see this day. In a matter of minutes the future of so many children changed, as they too were admitted into full participation in the American dream. What a powerful message, to see someone like yourself become President. The power of that demonstration, the power of that shift, is inestimable.
The hopes are many, the hopes are high. Freedom, justice, equality, opportunity, and many more are the dreams we as a people have been dreaming for centuries now. Our collective dreams have been re-ignited, "As much as we may like it to be otherwise, there is no immediate salvation– we cannot be saved from the work that needs to be done. We can step up to the plate, or hang back, it is our choice, or lack thereof. We are being watched. Just as we look back and see, so future generations will look back and judge us. Our possibilities are limitless, the future is, indeed, in our hands, as it always has been." Yes, I quote myself.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.— Abraham Lincoln
1/19/09:
"in 1964, numerous demonstrations were held, and the considerable violence that erupted brought renewed attention to the issue of voting rights. The murder of voting-rights activists in Mississippi and the attack by state troopers on peaceful marchers in Selma, AL, gained national attention and persuaded President Johnson and Congress to initiate meaningful and effective national voting rights legislation. The combination of public revulsion to the violence and Johnson's political skills stimulated Congress to pass the voting rights bill on August 5, 1965..."
"The legislation, which President Johnson signed into law the next day, outlawed literacy tests... The law had an immediate impact. By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new black voters had been registered, one-third by Federal examiners. By the end of 1966, only 4 out of the 13 southern states had fewer than 50 percent of African Americans registered to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was readopted and strengthened in 1970, 1975, and 1982." From ourdocs.gov
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.— Martin Luther King, Jr.
1/18/09:
Happy Sunday to you too!
It has been a lazy, piddle around Sunday today. It is nice to stay home. I posted some pictures of Jay, which you can see by clicking on the badger sign to the left. The pictures are about Jay's fascination with a soft drink named Moxie, and now such fascination has been tempered by that which always tempers us– reality.
So on this extra day, the second day of a three day weekend, we stayed home– ah. I relaxed by doing three batches of wash, making 4 loaves of zucchini bread and catching up on a couple of things I wanted to complete. My Uncle Paul had written me at Christmas wanting me to send copies of a couple family photos to my paternal grandmother's brother's boy– I guess that makes him my dad's cousin. I got those together and then wrote a note to someone locally here who lost her father, a charming, fun man I had the opportunity to meet a couple of years back. I am packaging one of the bread loaves I baked to send to a co-worker in Seattle who lost her mother, and have yet to write the note to enclose with it. One loaf is for my mom and dad, hope it makes it in pretty good shape all the way to Michigan. That should be a nice surprise.
Life and death continue to mix, each lending a meaning to each other that would not otherwise exist. Tomorrow is MLK's special day, with its own list of things for me to write and accomplish. There is always time, of sorts, for rest– yes, I will procrastinate later. Yes. Ciao.
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about. — Albert Einstein
1/17/09:
Boy it sure seemed like a long work week. I was very tired, dragging my body around at work as I fought off a virus trying to set up shop inside me. So far I have not had a full-blown cold or flu and seem to be getting better (hope that remains so). Can you believe it is already mid-January? Yikes and double-yikes.
Today we headed up to Bellingham, picked up our favorite fig jam at the Mediterranean deli and a rice mix I like to use at Trader Joe's. We also saw Slum Dog Millionaire at the Pickford Cinema, a movie getting lots of good reviews and awards/nominations. It was a well-made movie, great acting and photography, but it had more harsh content than I anticipated. Suffice it to say kids growing up as "slum dogs" do not have it so good.
Click on the nice winter bird pic for a yuck. More later...
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.— Mark Twain
1/11/09:
I got the photo to the left of a statue covered in ice off the Christian Science Monitor website, and the picture links to an interesting political article. This evening I searched around the site to find where I got the pic from, to no avail. Maybe you will have better luck.
We are supposed to have a high pressure system coming in, bringing drier, warmer weather– cool beans. I have been struggling the last week with a bug trying to take hold of my body and have valiantly kept it at bay with Cold–Eeze. Yesterday my friends Anita and Kate came up to see the new addition and have a nice luncheon with me, I felt great and had a wonderful time seeing both of them. Today I am tired and feeling crappy, but still hoping for the best. Getting sick is a waste of time...
The cute baby shoes to the right are on the way to my niece Kristin in Florida. She is expecting her first child in June, very exciting! Here's hoping for a wonderful pregnancy and baby, yes indeed.
Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.— John Wilmot
1/9/09:
Well, the holidays are over and it was back to a regular, full work week again. Despite this, life in Western Washington remained very un-normal. Our heavy snowfall was followed shortly by heavy rain that lead to severe flooding all over, from Oregon to Canada— except here on the flood plains of Skagit County. You can check out some pictures in the Seattle Times if you like. We are thankful for our good fortune.
A local who comes into Jay's copy store drives the cool old Rambler pictured to the left— original auto invoice posted on the rear door window and all. Jay's first car was a 1961 Rambler American Super, this one is a '61 or '62 I think. Cool. If you click on the picture you get a chuckle... Later.
There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure.— Jack E. Leonard
1/3/09:
Several years back I went out to lunch with my work group to celebrate a birthday or going away or other such thing, my boss and his boss in attendance. At the end of the meal we got fortune cookies and I rejoiced aloud about what I read for myself. My boss's boss raised her brows and remarked to my boss, "I know your strong faith would not allow you to believe in such things!" I don't remember my boss's response, but I just shrugged and said that if it is a good fortune I believe, if not, whatever. I read my horoscope for 2009 and excitedly showed it to Jay. Poor Jay, having to respond to such crap, said "And how many people have your sign?" Hmm, what? Oh yeah— "One twelfth of all people!" Smile. It's a mysterious world, still. Whatever floats your boat…
My friend Barbara and her significant other Jeff came up from Seattle New Year's Day for a celebratory meal. I was going to post a picture here but the two I took of them arriving were out of focus and unsalvageable, despite Jay's kind attempt. The other picture taken later in the evening turned out fine but was not complimentary, so none of those pictures have ended up being posted. Instead we have a picture of one of the local cats, our most frequent "fence cat", taken by Jay. You can see the mysterious fence cat to the right (click it for a larger version), in its usual position on the back fence, as viewed from our living room. She likes to sit there with her back to us, looking down into the field as if it were a TV. Her owner was over recently and seemed quite surprised to see his cat from our living room window and learn we watch her there everyday. Yes, it is a mysterious world. Keep your eyes open, it is a wonderful year ahead, the best 2009 ever.
I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.— John Steinbeck
1/1/09:
I type this while I still await the date of this entry, 1/1/09. The New Year's celebration has ended in New York; the celebration is now making its way across the land that is our country, making its way to me.
It will soon be 2009, the 8th year I have ushered in on these pages. Since the fall of 2001 I have gone on and on, talking about myself and everyone and everything I care about. I am the center of my world, as you are yours.
John Lennon said life is what happens while you are making other plans, and he was so incredibly, incredibly right. Huge, humongous changes have occurred in society since the 1950s, yet the plans for a revolution have not all, not at all, materialized— many dreams having gotten mired in the self-same materialism identified as culprit decades past. Over and over mankind has learned the lesson that material goods are, indeed, less filling. And over and over man has sought to find not only security but everything in material wealth. It continues to be a wonder that mankind has not only survived but proliferated, for now, on earth. Even very smart men do not seem to be able to get a clue— when they are never "filled" by their material wealth they do not pause to consider, but continue on the path of accumulation. Man never seems to stop to wonder just why he cannot seem to get enough for himself.
Life continues to happen, it is true. It is a long process, longer than you or I will get to see come to fruition. Where will the process take us, mankind? Maybe it is all predetermined, maybe not. Maybe life has meaning, maybe not. Maybe we are all just "here", and maybe no one is watching. But maybe, just maybe, what we believe in and do will influence the path, regardless of eternal damnation or lack thereof. I think it is even possible to say without a doubt that what we say, do and believe in will impact the future of mankind. Yes.
As the years go on, we change and remain the same all at once. An excerpt (read every word, try reading it out loud):
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
— Langston Hughes, Let American Be America Again
Langston was born in 1902 and died in 1967; his writings remain timely.
As much as we may like it to be otherwise, there is no immediate salvation— we cannot be saved from the work that needs to be done. We can step up to the plate, or hang back, it is our choice, or lack thereof. We are being watched. Just as we look back and see, so future generations will look back and judge us. Our possibilities are limitless, the future is, indeed, in our hands, as it always has been.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.— Alice Walker
Jardot's World: January Edition, 2009
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