We Are Stardust

"Toby, can you think of what a billion years is?"

"Do you mean in cat years, or human years?"

"Our years, like how many times Earth goes around the sun."

"Well, no, I can't," he said.

"Me neither. I can't even imagine a billion years of our Earth circling our sun. Did you know Earth's been doing that for around 4 1/2 billion years?"

"Whatever made you think about this?" he asked.

"I just heard that a million miles up, way, way out into the sky, into space there is a telescope named James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that was rocketed out there last December. Now it began sending us infrared pictures that show what was happening 13 billion years ago, even way farther beyond that. That's the back of beyond--the Big Bang--where everything began 13.5 billion years ago."

"Rockets!" he exclaimed. "That Tesla guy is out there doing this?"

"Ugh. No way! Perish the thought! Our NASA and European Space Agency got together to do it. They started working on it back in the 90s."

"What are they seeing?"

They are seeing "...the universe turn the lights on for the first time right after the Big Bang," is how Eric Smith the Webb program scientist put it. Webb will look at five cosmic phenomena that are 7,600 light-years away and send us some more pictures. Richard Ellis, professor of astrophysics at University College London who was part of the committee that thought up the telescope said, "...we are ourselves made of the material synthesized in stars over the past 13 billion years."

"We are? You and me?"

"Yep! Your stardust made a cat; my stardust made a human."

I could hear him purring as he said...

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Number Seven of the January 6th Insurrection Hearings took place this afternoon. It covered a lot about the militias and people that took part in it, and much else. My hope is that our ballot box is strengthened so nothing like that ever happens again.

When I slid my 2020 ballot into a ballot collection drop box, I had for the first time in my 60 years of voting a disquieting, uneasy feeling that it might not be counted because of mounting disenfranchising manipulations and obstructions going on. How could something so base and out of line with America happen? How is that still happening right now?

Here we are. We who are made from the dust of the Universe, running around in senseless ways destroying our planet, each other, and the societal governing fabrics that make it possible for 8 1/2 billion (and counting) of us to live on our beautiful, blue planet. The Universe will go on without us. 

Just as Ben Franklin said, "It's a democracy if you can keep it."

It's our planet home, if we can keep it.

There are ways forward. Here are a couple...

ELECTION INFORMATION from League of Women Voters Education Fund
*Your ballot's candidates and issues anywhere in the USA--any political affiliations! 

*The office function.

*The candidates.

*Each candidate's answers to their background, why they're running, their answers to questions on current issues--local to national.

*Side-by-side, interactive candidate comparison tool.

*Your districts' ballot issues in plain summaries with published Pro and Con views.

*Print your own personalized, informed list while you're reviewing the candidates and issues. The interactive lets you check your choices, print your list, or email/text it to yourself,

*Find your polling place.

*Discover debates in your area.

*Checklist for first-time voters.

*Election problem phone numbers for multiple languages. 

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"Writing letters to voters is one of the most effective ways to increase election turnout. And you can do it right from home," says Vote Forward's website. It's about getting out the vote. It rejects political partisanship. There is a comprehensive how-to. You can choose current campaigns and issues that are near or far.

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Please, feel free to forward this voting information to others. One-by-one, vote-by-vote, we'll make democracy work for every single, last one of us Americans!!!

Shirt courtesy of Sandy. Thank you. Just what the doctor ordered.

***

And, we had that summer holiday and Aidan was well prepared for it. He put together a fun rocket fest out behind the barn, and yes, he made the rockets...

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Here we want a shout-out to congratulate Jeff over in Utah who will start a new job working for the VA on August 1st. That rocks, Jeff! And, it's working from home. Sonja's VA job has been from home since before the pandemic. Now Jeff will be similarly employed. I'm really happy for him and for them both. 

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And now! for the art part, we go to The Arts Desk:

Paula has given us a new look at Rose Canyon in the Catalina Mountains in the northern reaches of Tucson, Arizona...

Paula sent this summer's pink cactus in bloom again. If you're a reader of this blog you probably remember that this was one of my several cactus plants that needed a new home when I moved to my condo and the Javelina started to eat them. Paula and Carl rescued them and often I get to enjoy a picture of their blooms...

Within a couple of hours of Paula's email, I received two pink cactus flower pictures from Gloria, also...

These began as a few pups from the mama plant, now at Paula and Carl's, which I had given to Gloria during the early aughts, before I moved to the condo. I think I purchased the original plant at the Oro Valley Farm Market one Saturday morning.

I'm always struck by the energy of their cells rapidly multiplying to make such glorious beauty out of so very little.

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Keoni is at a music institute in Chicago. He sent us Jesse Montgomery Ravinia Performance. He says, "Jessie Montgomery (the composer in residence) speaks to the audience at 8 minutes in, my quartet performs her piece Break Away at 48:55. It's a striking and vivid piece about 10 min long and I think it's one of the coolest string quartets I've ever performed."

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And here at Dock, the summer flowers are everywhere...

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