Simple Destruction

This flower is so pretty. I took this picture while walking around a vineyard in San Diego. There was a small village with shops, eateries, fine art shops, and antique stores. The place was quaint, but must have been much more happening as there were several empty stores and offices. In place of items to purchase plants grew around the windows. Even this lovely little flowers had wound itself around a banister outside an old store. One place even had vines pushing their way into the rooms through the roof and ceiling. It was very beautiful, but caused me to remember that we humans aren't always as strong as we would like to believe. Yes, we have our weed whackers and out toxic chemicals to kill off the weeds, but leave the weeds to their own devices and "They're Baaack."

We could look at the weed and learn a lesson from them as well. Often anger grows in our souls like a weed. You think you have dealt with the issue, but a single thought in a weak moment pops into your mind and BANG weed central. The blooms of yourlittle anger weed may look pretty and so it seems like it is justifiable to keep it around. Meanwhile, the roots anchor themselves around your heart and squeeze and squeeze. Forgiveness...

I know it is nearly impossible to forgive AND then to forget. I think the statement means we forget the pain, not the memory of the instance of hurt. Of course, then one day you observe the weeds growing out of someone else's chest and think, "I use to have some of those." You feel the beat of your heart and wonder what ever had made you so insanely angry, sigh, and move on humming your old song of joy you discovered buried under all your weeds.

Shifting Desires

Life brings so many changes. Some have been my choice and others have been the product of other people's choices. At the present time I am pretty happy with life. I am in love with a great man who feels the same way for me, I have a job where laughter abounds and I have the opportunity to influence young minds. However, sometimes I do get the desire to shift my life around. I think about all the places I would like to move away to.
Moving out of the desert to a rainy climate next to the ocean. Or maybe living next to snow and a whole lot of nothing, but beautiful nature in Alaska. I don't know, maybe I just wanted to find a reason to use the picture above. Yeah, that is probably it.

The Future

I wonder where our great country is going. There are changes to be made. I think it is time people do what they say as far as the whole Democrats and Republicans working together. To me, it has been more like, "Hey, you agree with me and we'll be fine." A game of big bullies not brains. Let me remind you of Patrick Henry's words, "The distinction between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, and New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American."
This is what I believe we should be saying to one another, "I am not a Democrat or Republican, or any party. I am not a political tool, but an American."
When will the media stop their games? When will we come out of ourselves and realize our very being, our liberties are at stake? We are standing on the front porch arguing with the paper boy about where the paper should be thrown while the thief walks right through the back door and steals our livelihood! When will we stop hating?!
I believe we are in the midst of a civil war of ideologies. No single president can be the savior of America. The people must stand and make a change! In any relationship there has to be compromise. I am sorry to tell you, but you won't always get your way; I won't always get my way. Tolerance has lost its meaning.
I'll tolerate you if you agree with me and let me bully you. Why do we place so many conditions on one another? IF you do this, then I'll do that. There are people who want to destroy America and we are destroying ourselves on the inside. Our enemies won't have to do much else other than watch the show if we continue along the path of hatred. I am talking to all of you: the liberal who despises Bush, the conservative who claims Obama is a Muslim, the Christian who claims to love but hates the homosexual, the tolerant humanitarian who hates God, etc., etc.
Continue along this path and we will end up like the flag above: backwards and in a grave yard.

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of all man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows howt o put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated....Panics, in some cases, have their uses;...their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstone of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered."
Thomas Paine
The American Crisis (1776)

Sharks and Cliffs

Dreams are so interesting. At least mine are, mainly because I remember them in vivid detail many times. An entire world exists within my mind. A place I revisit time and time again. The locations I revisit in my dreams are an amalgamation of all the places I have been with embellishments here and there.

One of the locations in my dream are red cliffs similar to what you would find in Utah around Zion Natl Park. Last night is a good example of this locale. It was a little like the Grand Canyon as well. I took my students for a field trip or something. The crazy thing about this particular dream was it mixed two other common elements of my dreams. One was another location in my dream world which is dock area. The other is needing a bathroom and the toilet is in a odd or precarious area.

In the dock area houses line the left side and there is a boardwalk on the right. Sometimes there is a beach, other times buildings. The right side always appears different, but it is the same place. Last night the dock scene was a high wall which went straight into the water many feet below the water's surface. As I looked down into the water I could see the shadow of a shark. I heard a chef's voice behind me say, "It is Gorman Gourmet, the shark."

Apparently, this was supposed to be familiar and exciting. I think the shark could talk. Part of the dream I was swimming with the Great White and other moments I was standing on the wall looking down and still other times I was in a raft with the students who were at the cliffs with me.

Back to the toilet. I needed to go to the restroom in my dream and the only bathroom was practically hanging off a cliff! I was calm in the dream, which is unusual, but must mean I have conquered some kind of anxiety in reality. (which is true) From this scene I was carried to the dock scene.

I am not sure what it all means, but it is always fun nonetheless.

Grasshoppers...

They really do not disgust me, but there is something about a bug being on me and images of scenes from The Wrath of Khan that cause me not to want them on me.

Here is the scene: I was sitting in my classroom with my three World History students. I was in the middle of giving a lecture and review the points of the Greek civilization. One of the students looks at me and says, "You have a grasshopper on your shoulder."

At first, I was not in any alarm, I thought the little creature could simply be brushed off. Suddenly, I had an image flash through my overly creative and dramatic imagination of a grasshopper's "feet." How they are able to grasp and hold firmly to my shirt. I imagined the thing going into my shirt or into my ear (hence, the Star Trek scene imagery). To the delight of my students, I flipped out! I started to scream, "Get it off! Get it off!"

This was especially entertaining to the young man in my class as he repeatedly replayed the scene.

Later in the day I captured these pictures of the grasshoppers just outside my classroom. They really are quite beautiful in their own insectian way.