It’s called “Aint It Awful,” but we need someone to write the music.  Would a jazzy dirge be appropriate!?  Maybe to the likes of “Clementine”:  O my darlin’, O my darlin’,  O my darlin’ Clementine, are you here or gone forever, aint it awful, Clementine?

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(I wrote we, but it’s just me, despite the start of an unfinished poem begun last night–or early this morning:)

DEEP THINKING

I know I’m me, but

is that a good thing?

What if I was we?

Could we weather

the storm?

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WOODENTLY IT BE NICE….I read that …

fallout from  soldiers’ artillery fire can sicken them….If this was true for all troops, everywhere?  Written with empathy for man/woman kind.

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2023 was the warmest (as in hot) ever, according to those who measure such things.  Could that have anything to do with tempers?  –“At least the hottest in 100,000 years.”  Can we not cool our tempers down a tad during the current cold spell?  The coming summer is, alas, another day.  (ALTHOUGH another source says it was the hottest in the last 150 years.  Who the heck has trouble counting?  Don’t have time to run it down, but somebody ought to. Grump grump.

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QUOTATION…From The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm:  “Brotherly love is based on the experience that we all are one.  The differences in talents, intelligence, knowledge [and race and religion and nationality]   are negligible  in comparison with the identity of the human core  common to all men. In order to experience this identity it is necessary to penetrate from the periphery to the core….”  pg 46

You may have heard by now: another school shooting, in Iowa….And some honcho in the NRA has been arrested…and China has been following spy planes…And in ATHENS, OHIO Jan. 1, the BYOB day (Bring Your own Bag) dawned, some grocery store shoppers griped, and  the state of Ohio says Athens’ plastic BAG Ban is Unconstitutional, which is no surprise since Ohio is republican.  But I have an idea!  It would be a win for them if Walmart or/and Kroger and maybe Aldi and/or Seaman’s came out and supported Climate Change and stuck with the no-plastic bags decision on their own.  That would certainly affect where I continue to shop.

But did you hear and/or see on CBC the great strides Canada is taking with housing/homelessness?  Amazing, absolutely amazing.  And I really do enjoy a couple of their cute, youngish and affable male anchors,  so much more enjoyable than some of the new anchors here and there.   I’m not just talking about looks; personality is involved, too. One male anchor even has curls, and does not appear to be trans.  Not that there’s anything wrong with being trans, you understand…Sorry if in the new year I have sunk into humanity with all its foibles…Speaking of trans, I just stumbled across an apparently new news source called Trans Nation.  I hate to be behind the times, but apparently it’s old news that Ottawa is offering  visas to people in Gaza with ties to Canada.

Lovely?:  Who said “I am your retribution.”  Does that make you feel all warm and cuddly?  Go figure.

Last year it was revealed that all countries have shrinking populations.  Making space for more immigrants?  Well, no, because we have to “save our own civilization.”  I wondered with all the discussion about shrinking populations why I hadn’t read anything about impaired sperm production until the current The Week magazine.  A  study of Swiss military recruits ages 18 to 22 found that those who used their mobile phones more than 20 times a day had a 21 percent higher risk of a low overall sperm count and a 30 percent increased risk for low sperm concentration, compared with those who used them five or fewer times a day.

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THINKING

Well, maybe not thinking

but tussling with ideas and

trying to recall dreams.

And now, pencil in hand

I write and remember the trees

all green, but not the fork trees,

bare and stripped of life among

their green brothers, standing,

forks aloft…or are they the

devil’s trident, poor souls.

I do not know the history of the following–it was a forwarded greeting from a second or third party. I feel guilty about not being able to get permission to share it, but would feel even guiltier if I did not share it:

Dear Family and Friends–Happy Holidays!

This is a different greeting than we formerly sent, no trips, adventures or great activities to report.  Jenny* has Alzheimer’s and now our journey is an inner one in which we have daily talks about the trips we took, the people we know, how we met and the memories that are still alive. We wonder what will happen and then come back to the present moment as our most precious gift and refuge.  We hold hands and hug more often and have the deepest conversations we have ever experienced  during our 43 years together.  We spend hours a day  processing what is going on, talking about the joys and losses of our life  and being grateful for all we have and especially for friends and family.

…Everyday lessons and finally learning anew every day how to respond to the calligraphy from Thich Nhat Hanh on our wall, “How may I best love you?”  It seems like this is a daily koan for me.

Much of my time is spent reassuring Jenny , as Lisa Genova (author of Still Alice) has said, “Diagnosis doesn’t mean you’re dying tomorrow.  Keep living. You won’t lose your emotional memory. You’ll still be capable of understanding love and joy. Despite the fact that my yesterdays are disappearing and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment.

Jenny and I have been given the opportunity to really practice what we have learned…over the years. In taking this dive into the unknown, we are learning how to truly love each other. Meanwhile, her long term memory is stellar. We now have time t0 complete any unfinished business (Jenny’s specialty), let go of anything that doesn’t support our journey and share our deepest truths about everything.

We talk about family and friends like you often and know you are there. Thank you for your prayers, blessing and metta practice. If one thing is true, “understanding is love.”

May your holiday season be blessed with peace, love and joy. May you take care of yourself so you may take care of those you love.

With loving kindness and peace….

*Jenny substituted for real name.

FUN – I received an interesting calendar for Christmas:  “Goats in Trees.”  Apparently goats in Morocco  climb trees and the photos are charming.  The scoop and the poop:

THE ARGANIA TREE IS NOT the most aesthetically pleasing plant in the world with a rough, thorny bark and gangly, crooked branches. But these Moroccan trees still tend to attract admirers, thanks in large part to the hordes of goats. The animals stand on the impossibly precarious branches and get down to their seasonal feast. Far from just a single ambitious goat climbing a single tree, the animals tend to swarm into the branches in number.

Local farmers condone and even cultivate this bizarre feeding practice, keeping the goats away from the trees while the fruit matures and releasing them at the right time. There is also a secondary benefit to the goats’ habits which is found in their poop. After the goats finish eating the fruit and nuts off the tree, they pass valuable clumps of seeds which are then pressed to create the sought-after Argan oil. Check it out via Google at atlasobscura.com

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ROLL OVER, BEETHOVEN!  —  One of my recent “Likes” was from an interesting person in Malta…unfortunately I don’t think I can ever learn how to read those little funny boxes to say Thanks…

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WHAT THE H IS WEGOVY! ….A casual heading in this week’s The Week heralded a clipping about Wegovy without ever defining it.  A first I was flammoxed, but after looking it up can I be proud that I’m not one of the weightiest who seek it out?  (But not one of the oldest who has trouble keeping up with the times?)

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: If a man takes off his sunglasses I can see him better.  –Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mandy/Molly!  Fifty-Two Today!

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CAN WE ALL TRY to make 2024 better than 2023?  Let’s go, TEAM 2024!

Is it possible that the United States failed to prevent the attack of 9-11 in order to justify the following war for oil?

And is it possible Israel failed to prevent the attack by Gaza– when its female spotters kept warning Israel that an invasion seemed to be building– in order to justify the “responsive” war with Gaza?

I have been reading about the backstage shenanigans re the Bay of Pigs invasion on https://www.jfk Library and I just wonder how to make sense of it all.  (I never resolved 9-11)

QUOTE OF THE DAY:  “Don’t fight a fact. Deal with it.”  –Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself

NOT  IN ISRAEL, NOR GAZA, NOR PALESTINE, NOR ROME, NOR IN MUCH OF THE USA….

A  note from the Sling Shot  Winter 2023:   ” I feel this sense of relef when I go to the San Rafael dump.  It’s similar to the feeling I get when it starts raining. At the dump, it’s big and loud and chaotic, and the towering piles of trash make you feel like you’re in a dystopian sci-fi movie. For some reason they have peacocks there. You go to the dump expecting it to be a chore, the least glamorous part of fixing up your back yard, and instead you end up in another world for half an hour….

“….We are taught to believe it’s all part of the masterplan; people sleeping on streets, colonial states dropping bombs, supreme court rulings, elections, job interviews, getting engaged. Ingrained within us is this false notion that there is a point behind it all–that the path we are on has a destination.  But what kind of masterplan is it if it does not honor life? If it has no problem killing thousands of children along the way? We don;t need to wait and see if things will work out. Things did not work out….”

How did I run into the Sling Shot?  Serendipity via my granddaughter visiting from North Carolina via her mail from California, I believe…

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I CAN’T EVEN SAY HO HUM — Would/could Israel really have told Gazans to go to a safe spot and then dropped their heaviest bombs on them? If so, can the US stop the money they’ve been giving the Israelis?  When is enough enough?

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QUOTE OF THE DAY —  “Thr potential acts of good caused by religion can never exceed those that cause violence.”  Hector Avalo, Fighting Words; The Origins of Religious Violence

AS PROMISED, no comment.

No one liked this in 2015, so I thought I’d give you another chance.  It occurred in the waiting room between lives:…Then I spy Elvis himself–fat, paunchy and wearing sunglasses. The only trace of fame that adheres to him is the white-spangled costume which was his trademark. I wish he was singing a hymn from one of his albums, but then I realize that there is not much interaction between those who wait.  He is not in an aisle seat , but I lean over and address him. “Mr. Presley?” He looks up nervously, as though he expects an autograph hound, then nods.  You’re headed for a different life and different lessons. Before you’re all gone would you be kind enough to give us the gift of your ‘Amazing Grace’?”  Elvis blinks, obviously surprised, and then looks all around him as though to assess his potential audience. Apparently satisfied, he stands and faces the main portion of the crowd. His voice is richly beautiful as he sings all seven verses of  “Amazing Grace,” as only he can. He sits down when finished and instead of wild applause there was a total, respectful and moved silence, punctuated by quiet sobs.

DAMN DAMN DAMN HO HUM:    http://nedhamsonsecondlineviewofthenews.com/2023/12/23/airstrike-in-gaza-kills-u-n-worker-and-more-than-76-of-his-relatives-the-new-york-times/