05/10/2021

Pets are Family that Love Us Unconditionally.


We lost one of ours this morning. She sat all yesterday afternoon in my wife's lap underneath the shade of a large oak and amid a gentle breeze. She had spent the weekend in my lap while I worked the keyboard. She didn't complain, was content, calmed us after difficult days, and when she left the only thing we felt was profound sadness while wondering if we had done enough for her. Pets are that way. We are their world, their news, and they know when we are happy, playful, sad, or tired and they adapt to us.

Can you think of anything more positive in our lives than that? She'll be missed, but we had better lives because of her.

If only we could learn to be as perceptive with each other as our pets are with us. Wouldn't that ability change our world for the better?

So hug your dog or cat and spend some time with them, they're great! If you have fish I'm sorry, they just are calming to look at, but hardly interactive, unless of course you have piranha.

05/11/2021


"Penury"


Probably the least positive state of existence there is.

What could be positive about it? At first not much as it begets greed, envy, and violence. But it is the great social readjustment and it always results in stronger communal laws, a greater sense of communal cooperation, and thrift mingled with common sense, and all of that as a defensive response to predators.

When people are destitute they have little patience for predators or crime. And that is the first step to the revival of a culture. You must first hate evil. You must secondly learn to cooperate with each other for the greater good, and to find your strength in that community.

This is what gave rise to civilization just as surely as selfishness and an emphasis on leniency for criminals destroys it.

We've spent ourselves into oblivion with little to show for it as a nation as we have allowed the largest of conglomerates to buy access to our Congress and to profit from the association at the people's expense. We are watching the beginning of a cycle of inflation for the necessities of life on a planet with diminishing resources and a population past 8 billion and on the move toward 9 billion. A strong dollar kept Americans well stocked even when it meant jobs might go overseas. A weak dollar may bring jobs back but will wages be able to buy necessities as easily?

It won't be just gas, but all forms of food, supplies for shelter, and of course medicine that will see a jump in costs, all while your personal credit card rates go up and up. In the 70's there were people routinely paying 18% to 21% interest depending upon what the state they lived in permitted. Most young couples today have no clue what that is like.

But the silver lining in this ominous cloud is that once again people will learn to be happy with the basic necessities, budget, not worry about what the neighbors have or don't have, and to stay out of debt. I think garden supplies are about to go up. People had better learn how to preserve their own seeds. And that too is a positive thing!

05/12/2021

"The Truth Will Out"


Yesterday a large number of retired Admirals and Generals expressed concern over Biden's fitness to lead and expressed concerns over the election.

Today people are realizing just how much the infrastructure has fallen into disarray on both Republican and Democratic watches.

The gas shortage will be abated in a few days, the bridge situation on the Mississippi notwithstanding.

People all over the country are losing confidence in the news media, the CDC, and other information services.

This means they are beginning again to think for themselves. And that is a very positive thing.