Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Monday, October 02, 2006
Things to wonder about
Hello all. I'm unprepared for this event, blogging - but what the hell. I'm sure it will remain mostly undiscovered as there is so much more that will be sensational, interesting and up to the minute that will attract more attention. Fine with me.
Tonight while watching the news of the one room school house in Pennsylvania where Katie Couric expressed what appeared to be genuine sorrow I felt the same. So, I reached for my spinning wheel and some natural brown colored cotton roving with hemp in it that needed to get finished up. I have one bobbin full spun finely which I am thinking will be intended for kitchen towels that I will weave. Tho it may sound to you "hey! is this woman Amish or something?" of course not - my presence on this internet page is all the evidence you need that I have apparently got a foot in both worlds. The very low tech world of making things by hand, and the modern world 'we' live in. But the Amish don't live in 'our' world and yet, our world reached a hand into theirs today in a most tragic way. May God forgive and show mercy to every one directly involved.
Is this all we have to offer now? Violence and hi tech entertainments? The most popular and most watched television show is about murder. What does that say about our culture? Are we swirling in a sewer of overloaded circuitry that is affecting us to the point we don't see a psychopath in our midst? We don't know our neighbors at all? How often do we hear 'he was quiet and kept to himself'. Right. While you were watching television and just coming and going through the entrance to your house you might have waved at him. Never had time to talk, never had time to "know" him. You failed Citizenship 101. Notice how no one talks about Citizenship anymore? Like an outmoded old fogie, I do remember Good Citizenship and have tried to live by it. Road rage is failing citizenship. Using an emergency room as a clinic is failing citizenship. Law suits over children born with disabling conditions is failing citizenship. There was a time when people knew that having children wasn't a given for perfect results and accepted what they got with some kind of personal dignity and responsibility. Running red lights rather than stopping is failing citizenship. Burning up gasoline for things you don't really need to buy at places you didn't really need to go is failing citizenship. Rolling ATV's over land until the ground is eroded and the fumes are released for no appreciable benefit other than "fun" is failing citizenship. By focusing on ourselves alone, we fail our fellow men who live and work among us. And yet, no one thinks it's wrong. "Everybody" does it is the answer you usually get if you have the courage or interest to confront some one on this behavior. Personal responsibility is an outmoded value - yet we idolize firefighters and uniformed officers who are willing to lay down their lives to help others. Yes, these people are heroes. But there are a lot of heroes out there who have failed to live up to their potential to be great men and women.
Today's message is this: do something small to connect yourself to your 'life' and be a hero. Try and do it outdoors while walking on your own feet (if you're able) . Stop and smell the roses, the cabbage your neighbor is cooking and speak to those you truly live with. Toss an older neighbor's paper up onto their porch. Take a loose dog home safely. Keep watch over the straggling child running to school alone. Pick up a beer can on the street or a paper wrapper and put it in the trash. I have always been an outdoor person. When I moved into this old city neighborhood, I was the youngster at 40. As I walked, ran, biked, gardened, weeded, hauled and spun on my porch, I rarely saw any one. My closest park is a treasure and no one could say it's over used. I have the running path to myself most days. Especially in winter, I felt that even tho surrounded by homes and people when I was outdoors I was unseen, unheard and really enjoyed the feeling of not being in a city. That is changing as we're getting more upgraded by real estate speculators and reassessed higher taxes and the price of gasoline drives people to be closer to where they work and reclaiming truly magnificently built homes from neglect. Some of them I don't know and really don't care to - but I've taken the time to 'know' even them. And now can say I 'know enough' about them to know they're trouble. This is not being the nosey neighbor, this is being the good citizen.
And I have a question maybe some one will know the answer to: how does E coli get in spinach? If you wash it it should be gone? Dont' plant's root structures eliminate bacteria from the water they absorb? Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmm.......
Tonight while watching the news of the one room school house in Pennsylvania where Katie Couric expressed what appeared to be genuine sorrow I felt the same. So, I reached for my spinning wheel and some natural brown colored cotton roving with hemp in it that needed to get finished up. I have one bobbin full spun finely which I am thinking will be intended for kitchen towels that I will weave. Tho it may sound to you "hey! is this woman Amish or something?" of course not - my presence on this internet page is all the evidence you need that I have apparently got a foot in both worlds. The very low tech world of making things by hand, and the modern world 'we' live in. But the Amish don't live in 'our' world and yet, our world reached a hand into theirs today in a most tragic way. May God forgive and show mercy to every one directly involved.
Is this all we have to offer now? Violence and hi tech entertainments? The most popular and most watched television show is about murder. What does that say about our culture? Are we swirling in a sewer of overloaded circuitry that is affecting us to the point we don't see a psychopath in our midst? We don't know our neighbors at all? How often do we hear 'he was quiet and kept to himself'. Right. While you were watching television and just coming and going through the entrance to your house you might have waved at him. Never had time to talk, never had time to "know" him. You failed Citizenship 101. Notice how no one talks about Citizenship anymore? Like an outmoded old fogie, I do remember Good Citizenship and have tried to live by it. Road rage is failing citizenship. Using an emergency room as a clinic is failing citizenship. Law suits over children born with disabling conditions is failing citizenship. There was a time when people knew that having children wasn't a given for perfect results and accepted what they got with some kind of personal dignity and responsibility. Running red lights rather than stopping is failing citizenship. Burning up gasoline for things you don't really need to buy at places you didn't really need to go is failing citizenship. Rolling ATV's over land until the ground is eroded and the fumes are released for no appreciable benefit other than "fun" is failing citizenship. By focusing on ourselves alone, we fail our fellow men who live and work among us. And yet, no one thinks it's wrong. "Everybody" does it is the answer you usually get if you have the courage or interest to confront some one on this behavior. Personal responsibility is an outmoded value - yet we idolize firefighters and uniformed officers who are willing to lay down their lives to help others. Yes, these people are heroes. But there are a lot of heroes out there who have failed to live up to their potential to be great men and women.
Today's message is this: do something small to connect yourself to your 'life' and be a hero. Try and do it outdoors while walking on your own feet (if you're able) . Stop and smell the roses, the cabbage your neighbor is cooking and speak to those you truly live with. Toss an older neighbor's paper up onto their porch. Take a loose dog home safely. Keep watch over the straggling child running to school alone. Pick up a beer can on the street or a paper wrapper and put it in the trash. I have always been an outdoor person. When I moved into this old city neighborhood, I was the youngster at 40. As I walked, ran, biked, gardened, weeded, hauled and spun on my porch, I rarely saw any one. My closest park is a treasure and no one could say it's over used. I have the running path to myself most days. Especially in winter, I felt that even tho surrounded by homes and people when I was outdoors I was unseen, unheard and really enjoyed the feeling of not being in a city. That is changing as we're getting more upgraded by real estate speculators and reassessed higher taxes and the price of gasoline drives people to be closer to where they work and reclaiming truly magnificently built homes from neglect. Some of them I don't know and really don't care to - but I've taken the time to 'know' even them. And now can say I 'know enough' about them to know they're trouble. This is not being the nosey neighbor, this is being the good citizen.
And I have a question maybe some one will know the answer to: how does E coli get in spinach? If you wash it it should be gone? Dont' plant's root structures eliminate bacteria from the water they absorb? Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmm.......
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)