Glory is Just a Little Further On

Since turkey hunting season last year, our friends Ben, Jerry and Tom, three handsome American Turkeys have been missing. I confess that by now, I had given them up. Especially when the long winter did not send them down to the bird feeders. Especially since the turk women have been here all cold winter long.

For several months this winter we have had below zero temperatures or at best, single digit readings. Snows, though modest  as single storms, continued to pile up to several feet. And no melting occurred for months.

Only the warm sun of March and a change in the direction of arctic air masses brought a thaw and the few squirrels who were not appalled at the presence of the turkeys,were happily finding buried treasure. I was sitting at the window typing,when i noticed one of the squirrels had arranged himself charmingly on a three pronged wooden waterfall support. i signaled to my husband, who had just walked into the kitchen, a sign for hush. his eyes got big immediately and when I looked beyond the posing squirrel, I saw the feathered fans in full array. Two of our lads were BACK. Their copper feathers shown and their heads glowed turquoise and red. They turned majestically , lest any detail be missed. Pageant of Ages, Pageant of today.

And I was reminded, yet again, that there is more to the world than I think I know, that Spirit moves the way Spirit Moves and I cannot chart it, I can only be grateful and inspirited.

As Autumn moves toward Winter

The leaves of the Japanese Maple

bless the earth

with tiny red hands.

Gaza

I wrote this in 2009. Sadly it is has only worsened.

GAZA

It is what we call patriotism

And the Bishops call Just War.

Its what soldiers call courage

And mothers call death.

But the process is clear

When the parents are fools

The children must be punished

Anew and Again

No matter how winsome

Or tender in years

How gentle their fingers

How open their hearts

We will maim and break them.

Its been our wisdom forever.

Look past the shining armor

Under the tanks

You will find the tiny bodies

The wisps of spirit

The little frozen hearts.

From this fertile soil

will grow

the new armies

more blind bishops

fresh Terrorists

And great Lies.

GAZA

It is what we call patriotism

And the Bishops call Just War.

Its what soldiers call courage

And mothers call death.

But the process is clear

When the parents are fools

The children must be punished

Anew and Again

No matter how winsome

Or tender in years

How gentle their fingers

How open their hearts

We will maim and break them.

Its been our wisdom forever.

Look past the shining armor

Under the tanks

You will find the tiny bodies

The wisps of spirit

The little frozen hearts.

From this fertile soil

will grow

the new armies

more blind bishops

fresh Terrorists

And great Lies.

Tenalach

(Celtic relationship to earth,air and water that allows the human to literally hear the earth singing)

And what would they be hearing today
the ancient mothers of my race
No songs of exultation now
but cries of anguish.

Of all invasions
there are none worse
than those who take the trees
and leave alas
just rock and turf

The great perversity of
that race
who killed the gentle man
upon a tree
and then rode
forth to kill yet more
crossing seas to do it.

Rome burned
and yet we’ve worshipped
through the years
the sword and ax of
Empire
Spread the ashes everywhere
and filled the seas with poison.

Mad fallen race for whom
the sun and stars
were not enough
nor generous trees
who breathed for them.

Anne J Ryan

Tiny

 

She was so very small. She was  entirely white. And she was perfect. Without injury or defect …and she had died. There she was on a late summer morning caught in the web of a dead spider. I tried, but I could not come up with a happy ending.

Desperation Within My Walls

I did not know

You ate my tube of orange though.

Here is to the postman (and woman).

One of my favorite columnists spoke for the Post Office the other day. Dave Rossi outlined the history of the post office and the current political scheme to sell out the post office and pad the bankrolls of private business. A scheme spearheaded by Rep. Darrel Issa of California. One that is echoed by many of our non servant politicians who would like to see everything taken out of the hands of the people.

At the end of his column, Mr Rossi spoke of his own days as a post man and the interaction of community and public servant that was repeated in every community in which I have lived. An interaction that is being actively squelched at our peril.

What is sad to me is that this peril is missed by many of our present day working people, many of whom are too stressed and too widely spread over too many “necessary” activities to notice the good work done by post men everywhere for generations. Sold out themselves, it becomes to easier to sell out others with silence or inattention.

Postmen and women have done much more than deliver mail. They have paid attention, notice the daily conditions of their neighborhoods and been able to bring help when needed. They have added brightness and humanity to the days of the very young and the elderly in their neighborhoods and been general observers and advocates for their communities. Postal delivery people pay attention and prevent many scams, attempted  robberies and dangerous events.

There is much more than paper that arrives in your mailbox. There is integrity, kindness and public service. Sadly now, not a very common delivery.

Seek, Blame, Kill

 

This would seem to be the mantra for all of our concerns. In a recent letter to the Press, we are instructed to read a government bulletin on Lyme Disease in order to be enlightened to the necessity for the latest culling proposal. This claim of necessity is also made for the Coyote hunts and now Bobcat hunts, both predators who have been largely missing from the dying wild. An obvious missing link hangs in space. Anyone notice?

And -oh-by the way, it seems the deer do not spread Lyme disease,  just as the badgers in England were not responsible for TB. But they were killed before that became clear to the experts. A few fled to Wales. Animal culling is a big business now, with lovely ‘environmental’ brochures. All colleges, Institutions etc. are likely to be approached with a ‘package’.

Necessity does not stop with local killings. Government finger pointing is not new. It is often later exposed as mistaken but only after lives have been taken and great suffering has been borne. Remember the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ later debunked but now resurrected – like gophers-in Iran. War after all makes a lot of money for some of the biggest corporations. We can’t have their cash flow interrupted. War is about money. Lots of money.

Governments scare people into believing otherwise.

Guns, hunts and lunatics in Ninja suits become the stuff of legend for a sedated public that is too distracted to bother reading for themselves or watching something that still respects the fact.

What prevents our public from thinking about what really happens in war,  and in animal culls?Its killing. We are killing people. We are killing children and old people. We are killing our sons and daughters. We are killing animals. We are killing the plants, the water, the atmosphere. We are poisoning the seas. We allow ourselves to not look. Why don’t we look?

Why don’t we look at the model of dominance that over and over again selects a victim and offers it to an anesthetized public?

When ‘necessary’, we even call it holy.

Selling and Buying a Bill of Goods-or is it Bads?

My view of the deer culling proposal at Binghamton University is not a popular one.  I oppose it. Most responses to my questioning, although not certainly all,  have been patronizing or at least impatient. There is after all a matter of urgency in this “deer problem” and there is a company with a well developed sales pitch.

Byron Katie , a self help author, has posited this question to her readers: Is it true? Since reading that , I have often considered the question.

If you are a supporter of the deer killing, I ask that you would apply this question to the information that has been provided in defense of the Deer Culling.(Killing)

The company, White Buffalo, who are a business that provides sharp shooters to colleges and other Institutions often along with an environmental pitch, describe themselves as deeply committed to the environment. They say they offer the best and most humane solution to the Deer Problem. But is there a deer problem? Is that true? And what form does that problem take and how has the consensus that a problem exists been reached?

Do by all means check out the website of this “Animal problem” business.http://

http://www.whitebuffaloinc.org/.

Read also : http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2008/11/19/rethink-unethical-deer-cull/

While you are doing that, please consider the name of the Business.

How do suppose it was chosen?

Does the juxtaposition of the name of an animal whose spiritual significance is deeply sacred to Native People’s give you a leg up when you are seeking an Environmental image?

Is that an integral choice? It seems unlikely to me that Native people would choose the slaughter solution. Again I ask, where is the truth in spirit and actuality in this company position?  It seems similar in character to the Environmental position of the Fracking Empire. In both cases, the initial proposal is assumed to be true, but is it?

Exactly how are the deer a problem? How is the forest degraded? Is providing easy food to the deer baiting them? Are the deer a problem? Was an exhaustive study done, or is Binghamton simply accepting the ‘college package’ offered by White Buffalo?

Are we in charge of the natural world? And if we are, what kind of a job have we done?

How many lives have been saved or improved by the dominance model. (Declare it a problem and kill it) Isn’t this the premise of most or all wars? Whose life has been improved by violence ?

Is the innate balance of nature to be ignored one more time by the experts?

Could we not accept the possibility that a little discomfort initially could bring lasting benefits and a True Nature Preserve?

 

Selling or buying the goods -or is it Bads