Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. 2022

 

Black and Blue Aren't Cutting It

I went down to the barn to see Toby since I knew he'll stay in there until there's a path through the snow that fell last night. He was curled up inside his igloo-like cat warming basket, but he crawled out to greet me, stretching his long feline body as he emerged. 

 "Say, this self heat-reflective cat house is the best thing you've gotten from Amazon," he said. "Almost as good as the canned cat food Wendy buys online." I doubt he knows all the other things I get online to keep me out of Covid's way.

 

I told him, "I came down here to the barn to see you and say I am tired, tired, tired! of all the negative stories and catastrophes."

 

"I wish cat wasn't part of catastrophe!" he said. 

"I didn't notice that before," I said. "I guess it's kinda pejorative."

"What's pejorative?"

"I didn't know either so I asked Siri. She said it's a word expressing contempt or disapproval or hostility."

"Eww!" he exclaimed. "That's what happened to us cats back in the middle ages when humans laid a blame trip for the Black Plague on felis silvestris catus."

 

"You're right, Toby. And cat pejoratives hadn't gone away when the witch trials were going full blast either. We ladies were the main blame story then, so cats didn't get the full monty--people just thought you were helping out the ladies with black magic."

 

"But, hey," he said, "I'm with you on stopping this brain bruising. I'm tired of wanting to climb up high in a tree. You and I both know the fire department doesn't come anymore to help us cats down from trees, and a good arborist with a cherry picker costs big bucks!"

"Yeah, same here. I'm sick of my mind wanting to hide under the bed. Besides, the dust fuzzies make me sneeze."

"So, what do we do about our black and blue brain bruises?" I asked him.

"I'm not the one you want to ask since I'm a loner and territorial. You're the social one. And, I'll point out, there are billions more of you than me.

We sat together on some hay bales for a a while. It was peaceful.

 

 

Then, I had a thought and said to him: "We humans could use a motto I saw over at the Mennonite Heritage Center. It goes like this: 

 

'We Have dedicated ourselves to serve all men in everything that can be helpful to the preservation of Men's lives, but we find no Freedom in giving, or doing or assisting in anything by which Men's lives are destroyed or hurt.'”* 

 

Then he said, "Sounds like it's best to just do the next right thing."

 

Suddenly, Toby's body went into full alert, his attention now on a skittering sound coming from the feed storage a few feet away. In an orange flash, he closed the distance and disappeared behind the feed barrels.

________

*Mennonite minister Benjamin Hershey, in a petition to the Pennsylvania Assembly, November, 1775.

 

 

At the Arts Desk: More from yours truly and Procreate...

 

 From the Weather Desk: Waking up to snow this morning...

365 Days Come to a Close

Good news: My iPad and Apple pen came in the mail today. Even better news: I downloaded Procreate and got it all to work.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

 

Banish Blahs

"Where have you been?" Toby exclaimed when I came through the gate to the yard. "I thought maybe you got run over by a car and I'd never see you again." He wound himself around my ankles a couple of times.

 

 

Little did he know I've been scared that that would happen to him, given that the farm lies on a pretty heavily traveled road. But he still seems to stay away from the road and vehicles.

 

"No," I said, "I'm careful crossing the road. But to explain, I tried to post something on November 18th but it just said, 'Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.' That's when my mind crawled under the bed. With all the catastrophes going on everywhere, it couldn't tell the difference between science fiction and what's happening in our world."

 

"So, you let your mind rest," he said. "I used to like going under a bed back in our condo days. Did you ask your mind if it was comfortable under there?"

 

"Yes, and mostly it was, but it needed a blanket."

"Yeah, I love my blankets to curl up with," he said.

"Well, I'm glad you understand."

 

"Did you see any mice or rats while you were under the bed?" he asked.

"Eww, no!"

"Oh well. Then I didn't miss out on anything."

 

Then he asked, "What made your mind come out from under the bed? You know the catastrophes we talked about last summer are worse--no where near better."

"Well, the under-bed-rest seemed to do it some good because this morning it rolled back out and said it was ready to stand up and take on the world. Then it did a little foot shuffle dance and made some Rocky-style fist jabs."

 

"Well, I'm glad you got your mind back." He went on, "Speaking of coming back, Aidan is back home from Cincinnati for Christmas break and brought along his cello. So, I hear music coming from the house again. I sort of miss when it sounded like a conservatory that first year and a half of the pandemic. It was peaceful."

I said. "Oh, and I heard Keoni is maybe back again from the West Coast where he was in a music competition. I'll play a part of it for you that's on YouTube. He got a prize for an arrangement of Tosca he made for viola and piano."

 

Toby asked, "Did that young woman, Umi, play it with him. I like when they play music together."

"Yes, she played. So let's go now to the Arts Desk and see what they did...

Keoni & Umi - Tosca

Paula in Tucson is keeping up her back yard journaling...

 

 

"Ok, Toby, I'm gonna go see if Aidan wants to take a walk."

 

Toby's Tales

"Hey, Toby! I see you've finished growing your winter coat," I said as he and the three farm dogs met me at the gate.

 

He climbed up on top the outdoor table near the gate and said, "I had it out with that former guy getting all the orange attention! I told him...

 

I want my orange back!

orange my day!

orange as verb!

orange back in its

glorious place!

orange!

yellow + red!

red + yellow!

welcome orange coat!

Yes, please,

orange my day!

orange as verb!

orange back in its

rightful, glorious place!

orange!

yellow + red!

red + yellow!

welcome fall!

 

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

Capital C Capitalism

Toby, my orange tiger tom friend, and I were sitting out in the barn lot on some outdoor furniture.

 

He told me, Last night, I was sitting near an electronic camera device strung up inside the barn, when, all of a sudden, it began picking up a neighbor's broadcast frequency and I could hear a story about how Capitalism began.

I said, I never did think about how capitalism began! Tell me about what you learned.

Sure, he said, and began-- 

 

Once upon a time there was

an island named Madeira

way out in the ocean.

It was covered with a lot of trees.

A shipload of Portuguese sailed by

and saw all the trees.

They said Wowza!

This is a bonanza!

So they stole black people

and made them chop down the trees

plant sugar cane

fire up the kettles

boil the cane

make the sugar--

all with no pay

so the Portuguese

could ship out

the most sugar

the world had ever seen!

They got lots and lots and lots

of money

from a little bit of money.

 

Boom!

 

They had invented Capitalism!!!

 

But after three or four decades

Madeira's wood was gone

a bunch of species were gone

the soil was depleted. 

 

Bust!

 

So they went to South America

and did it all over again.

 

Boom!

 

Then, 

 

Bust!

 

So they did it all over again

in the Caribbean... 

...in North American

rolling on...

and on...

 

Still.

 

Rolling.

 

On.

They gave the world capitalism!

 

They gave the world slavery!

 

When slavery mostly went away

Capitalism

and

cheap labor didn't.

 

When the have-nots stood up

and hollered about 

what was going on

the money people

told them a story:

We did the hard work

it was our capital

that made the money.

You all better

pull yourselves up

by your boot-straps

and work like we did!

 

They left out

You know...

the Truth...

unpaid labor--slavery

cheap labor

species extinction

bio-diversity destruction

ruined soil

ruined air

ruined water

ruined humans

ruined planet.

 

And now Capitalists want

to mine the bottom

of the oceans

and use up

what's left of Planet Earth

to rocket themselves

out to the stars

for more

more

more.*

 

Toby laid back in exhaustion.

 

I sat in stunned silence.

 

After a bit, Toby started licking a front paw and scrubbed his face and an ear. It kept me up all night, he said.

 

I told him, I think I'll become a Socialist.

 

What's that? he asked.

 

I don't know but it's time to find out.

 

It's time for my nap, he said, and rubbed his side along my leg as we got up and he headed toward the barn. He kept a little distance between himself and the big white rooster.

__________________

*Roughly based on The Guardian-Trashing the Planet by George Monbiot, and Madeira, Sugar, and the Conquest of Nature...by JW Moore and Wikipedia.

 

 *

Whew! I need some good news!

Let's go to the Arts Desk!

 

Paula, in Tucson, is a regular at her "Sit Spot" where she observes and notes...

 

 

You can see her inspiration here in these two links she shared with me...

How Nature Can Heal

 

Nature Connection Through a Sit Spot

_______________

Now for Culinary Arts:

Niece Paula, visiting here from Missouri, has a thriving jelly business. This is a photo of a gift she gave me from her jellies for Fall...

Wild Violet Jelly, Wild Orange Jam, Strawberry Lemon Marmalade, Honey and Thyme Blackberry Jam, and Apple Spread.

Paula's Facebook page is: Perpetual Wonders 

and her business email is: Perpetual Wonders Email

____________

 

And, Music Arts coming this weekend...

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