A Letter...& Light in the Shadows

morning breaks over the santa lucia mountains 

and fog filled valleys

bending time

     It's nice to suspend in mid-time. Good to tinker with the tick tock pulse that steals our days. A letter follows that weaves and folds time, if you allow it to.

light in the shadows

    It was the magical time those of us in television and production call the "golden hour."  The evening light transforms the world with a glow and the setting of our friend Marcos took center screen.

     Shadows come alive with intricate detail.

    Light and shadows play with a special warmth.

a letter for the future 

and to the past

      Dear Addie and Henry

      and little Donnie Trump,

      Addie and Henry I hope you are both well and happy and that your mommies are in good health and still being the creative and loving women I remember. As I write this now I can't not be sure of where I will be as you read this, but of this you can be sure, your Poppy will always love you and you will both be in my heart as sources of great joy and pride.

      I hope the world has improved and that people have learned to treat each other with more respect and love.  As you know, we are all related, children of the stars and made of the same stuff as everything else in the web of life.

      I hope the planet has become more of the beautiful garden it was intended to be. But your Poppy was always truthful with you and as you know people can get things confused and make mistakes.

      Way back when I wrote this there was man who I respected, Jon Stewart who liked to make people laugh and think. Just a few days ago he went to Congress where he had to get angry and plead with men and women to take care of sick fire fighters and police officers and emergency workers. Those sick men and women had rushed to a terrible disaster to save lives and rescue people, but there was poison in the air and it made them sick. And then years later when they really needed help, the people in the government turned their backs on them and said they had to send the money elsewhere. It makes Poppy sad to think the same thing is happening in many other cities, where firefighters, who risked their lives, are denied insurance and medical care.

      What's insurance? Well, that's complicated but it is supposed to help people when they need money for medicine or doctors. But when money gets involved it can change people, it can make them act in ways that are not so nice. Remember how we used to talk about sharing and how it was better to give than to receive. You know I always thought that healing and health care and medicine should be a right for all people and not a profit making venture. Like I said Jon got me to thinking about the balance of things in this life and where and how we put our values.

      Right now kids, I want to talk to a little boy who lived a long time ago. He was a kid who grew up in a family where money was more important than love. Little Donnie it is so sad what life will do to you. Sad that your dad didn't hold you enough, or play with you, or teach you the golden rule. Sad that he taught you to lie, cheat and bully people. Maybe you could have been a good guy, a creative person, someone who was fun to be around. It's too bad that you couldn't have figured a way to save forests, or clean lakes and rivers and the ocean, or to help the unfortunate to find safe places to live, or work to improve schools and education or even help sick New York Firefighters get medical treatment. You always had so much money.

      It wasn't your fault you were a problem child, no that is  because your dad seemed to pay more attention to your brother. You were a poor learner and they sent you off to a military school for troubled kids and even there people knew there was something wrong with you. Too bad a school counselor couldn't have gotten you help when you began to lie and brag. Too bad you had no real friends until you spent money on them. That's what you learned and it became the damnation of your life, even when people tried to reason with you. Maybe you would not have grown up thinking you were the most important person in the world if you had gotten the help you needed, or maybe if someone would just have loved you. So sorry. So sad.

       Addie and Henry, remember that everyone has a story and there is a reason why people act they way they do. I hope as you are growing up you will see this world as a place to make things better, for everyone. Maybe you can contribute to finding a way to stop spending so much money on weapons and instead spend more on medical research, or feeding the hungry and caring for the planet. Maybe you will be able to help people know that knowledge and learning are valuable and way more important than games or gossip. Maybe your generation will make sure everyone knows that we are on this planet together, breathing the same air, drinking the same water, living under the same sun and that  we share the same destiny. 

       Sorry we didn't do a better job of leaving you a cleaner, safer, healthier planet where people treat each other nicely. And little Donnie, too bad that you never learned the golden rule, and that gold does not rule. 

      So you see, no matter what someone may think, we are all in this together, good and bad, mean and kind, selfish and  self sacrificing. If you do good, there will be more good. If you help the hurting, there will be less pain. If you live and work for peace, there will be less war. If you think, you will learn. If you learn you will be more useful. If you are more useful your life will be more valuable. 

       And little Donnie, maybe in some future scenario there will be a way to time travel and some good soul might travel back to your childhood and show you real love and real manly behavior and save you from yourself. And save us from who you are now. In the meantime we'll have to wait for the old fashion solution, the ballot box and criminal indictments. 

       Addie and Henry, remember in good times or bad, peace or war, we are a people of laws. We are at our best when serve and love. We are most useful when we seek a better way.

      

      See you down the trail.