Empty Human Construct, Empty Lives

Photo by Belinda Peterson 2023 

This plant took atoms from the air, water, and soil and using energy from the sun, made this, all by itself.

We are surrounded by the miraculous and stunning beauty and yet we choose to spend most of our lives engrossed in man made silliness and the mundane. 

The Miraculous Needn't Look It

At this moment there is an aircraft flying autonomously on an alien planet after having travelled 149 million miles through space to get there.

To date it has flown 50 times - the only craft to have ever done so in the 4.6 billion year history of the planet it’s on.

Now look at this photograph - a kids model airplane sitting in any high desert on earth.

Except, no.

It’s an entirely different world - Mars - and despite its appearance this craft - both the craft and how it got there - is so stunning as to approach the miraculous.

The Media's Colossal Fail

The media is underwhelmed at the charges brought against Donald Trump by New York’s District Attorney. 34 felony counts of falsifying business records certainly doesn’t feel nearly as dramatic as the media had hoped and hyped prior to the indictments. How disappointing, says nearly every major news media outlet out there. I’d agree. Disappointed by the media itself and its colossal fail on this entire story.

First the media blows it way out of proportion - with almost no facts - then after the indictments come out doesn’t bother waiting for all of the facts, or the trial, before describing the case as shaky, and poorly founded.

Only our modern day media would find a case ‘underwhelming’ where a US president paid hush money to a playboy bunny and a porn star to keep them quiet about having extramarital affairs, then falsifies business records in order to hide the affairs, makes payoffs so as to in effect lie to his constituents in order to protect his chances at winning the election, and then reimburses his attorney for the payoffs - who went to prison for doing what Trump had asked him to do - reimburses Cohen for the hush money payments that had been made at Trump’s request, with checks Trump himself wrote, as the president, at his desk, in the oval office!

The only thing I find underwhelming in all of this is the media’s lack of basic journalistic standard, and imagination.

Or put another way - the only problem I see thus far in all of this is the media’s colossal fail.

Who Is The Birdbrain?

A crow can remember your face out of the hundreds of humans it has interacted with.

Can you remember its face?

The History of Humanity

Roman Men Playing Morra 

Growing up in the United States our K-12 history classes focused almost entirely on narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths and their wars. Kings, queens, emperors, military commanders, popes, presidents, and business leaders.

Is it any wonder then why we worship nation, military might, power, and wealth?

I want to know what an average roman merchant’s day was like. Asleep in the early morning in his home. What was his home like? Plumbing, water, heat? What was his bed like? His covers, his pillows. How did he awake in time to get to the market? He rises - how did he go to the bathroom, where was the bathroom, what did he use to wipe? Did he shave? How did he shave? Breakfast - what was it most often? He had no refrigeration - what did he eat for his breakfast? The clothes he wore - how did he clean them? He goes outside to his stable. What animal did he use to pull his cart laden with his wares. How did he harness the animal. What were the smells, the touch, the feel of his animal’s warmth, the leather used, how he felt as he harnessed the animal - a morning ritual - what were his hopes for the day? His hopes for his children, his marriage, his life? His walk to the market - what were the roads like? How crowded? The market - how did he sell his wares, what did he most often use for money - coins, barter, written records? His lunch - what was his lunch, his favorite snacks, favorite drinks? These are the sort of things I want to know - a day in a life can tell me so much more about a people and their humanity than a description of some war campaign waged by some general.

Imagine if we had grown up studying human history instead of the history of conquest, nation, wealth, power, and war. If we had learned enough about individual Romans so as to feel a human bond to them, so they were human - then those would be the sort of first questions we would be asking about Muslims, Russians, Chinese today. We would search for their humanity instead of giving in to the fear of the unknown and dismissing them as subhuman in preparation to mistreat them, war with them, brutalize them.

Rainy Days and Tiny Streams

When I was a little boy a small stream by the sidewalk near my house appearing out of nowhere during a cold, grey, rainy day - was magic. Crystal water cascading over pebbles, under floating leaves, around sticks, where none had been before was stunning to me, filling me with wonder, amazement and intense pleasure as I played in it - imaging all sorts of adventures and worlds - for hours. Rubber boots and all. 

Everything was so fresh, so in focus - I lived moment to moment so filled with a complete awareness and enrapture as I discovered my amazing world for the first time. 

That is how life should be, all of one's life.