Loving Your Neighbor? Really!

 

        Shiny 2022 is putting a headlock on a lot of folks and forcing some tough questions about deep matters. 

    There's already enough "put up or shut up" vibe in the air.  All the  talk about a civil war makes these days even more twisted. 

    Let's put that all that on hold while we offer a dose of California winter from the central coast. New vistas are helpful when winter sinks deep into your heart.

    

Old growth, awaiting new life...

...the linearity of wine country is always appealing...

...the vastness of the Pacific blue puts things in perspective

...snow is rare on the central coast...but we celebrate rain,

...like when it puddles in our forests....

...and when the earth celebrates and activates a life web....

    We are pretty much like mycelium, connected, though presently our relationship troubles puts America in a dark passage.

    The daughter of a life long friend, a precious young woman we have watched grow under the tutelage of her loving and pacifist parents has enrolled in a concealed weapons program.

     A friend, an Army vet is adding a second 9 mm pistol to his car.

    Liberals talk about building a network of "defender" cells, militia like, to counter the well armed and belligerent right wing militias who have made plenty of news and trouble. 

    And on and on and on...

    People steeped in the values of the Abrahamic faiths have committed murder in their hearts. How many of you have been with friends, or in communication where someone talks about wishing Donald Trump and his ilk would be assassinated? Maybe you have.

    Historians say the last time we were like this was before the civil war. 

    We should all cry. We should cry not only for the divide, the differing views of truth, the seemingly irreconcilable differences between us and because of the dangerous stooges who bask in media's reckless light. We should cry for what we are destroying, for the democratic republic that was the world's best hope, before it was broken and now dissed by some of its own, including power players who know better. 

    We need not simlply cry, we should fear the evil we are raising. We should fear the rise of a chimera of hate, violence and destruction we breed in our hearts. 

    

    We're under a low ceiling. We have forgotten what our better aspirations are. We've lost sight of the wisdom spoken by men and women through all cultures and ages, the wisdom that, like light in a dark time, pushes us to be enlightened, and  leads us to evolve.

    One may sneer at the ancient axiom to love your neighbor as yourself, but look at the results of not doing so.

    Stay safe. Be well.

    See you down the trail. 

    

    

How much, America?

    The scene just might be the most loathsome and repugnant ever to occur in the Oval office.

     American heroes Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, the surviving Apollo 11 crew, captured in the tempest as the rogue president walks back his walk back. 

     Those two brave men, who participated in one of humankind's great achievements, both of them now chasing 90 years, were miserably uncomfortable and needlessly and senselessly became chattel and collateral damage. It should never have happened.

      America and history owes them an apology for needing to endure the fetid drama that envelopes the deranged president. 

     Collins and Aldrin represent America at its best. The occupant of the White House, already considered the worst, simply corrupts and destroys. He had no business being in the presence of Collins and Aldrin. It would be a good thing if someone in leadership and authority issued an apology on behalf of the vast majority of US Citizens and the people of the world who see the president for what he is and who despise him and his behavior.

of that behavior....

      To my mind, one of the best uses of recording was the play back of the smug mugging he did, as his racist and nazi like mob broke forth in their hateful and truly anti American chant. There he was, looking left and looking right and smugly puckering as the hate crime went on for 13 seconds.

     Despite his weltering, all the world could see the lie.

not about politics or policy

     His mental illness makes him a danger in high office. Those who support him, pose a danger. Their combined lack of civility pose a danger. His and their racism pose a danger. His chronic deception makes him a danger. His stunted intellect makes him dangerous in high office. He has always been a cheat, liar, sexual predator, and arrogant. The sycophantic behavior of the bogus republicans is also a danger. It is enabling behavior.

     He is a clear and present danger. Heaven knows we are exhausted and frustrated as a nation. And we are divided: those who understand the danger and those who are the danger.

a meme to share

a moment of beauty

   Yet another magnificent orchid cactus bloom. Thanks for enduring another post about you know who. The world doesn't need another opinion, but some things need saying. 

And someday I want my daughters and grand children to understand, some of us did what we could to slake the evil of hatred, bigotry, prejudice, ethnocentrism and the destruction of civility and honor, to say nothing of the devastation of our environment. 

    See you down the trail.