Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Saturday, July 14, 2018

About Heroes

Heroes... perched on pedastols, enthroned, enshrined... And suddenly one day they come toppling down, to be charged with heinous behaviors, to be run out of town on a rail in a suit of feathers and tar... Or we just tear them down on principle, for daring to rise above the ordinary, pitching stones at anyone someone else has elevated to the Hero's height. I have a theory about Heroes. First, they don't make themselves. I have heard of many a celebrated hero who didn't want to hear it, who denied... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Thoughts inspired by a post on Facebook

Western Civilization is like the pavements it lays over the earth: it is thin and fragile compared to what it thinks to control and subdue. The power of the people who have lived with the Earth instead of despite it is rooted deeper and will outlast the crust of cleverness of Western Civilization. Indegenous peoples worldwide are unifying in acknowledgement of one another, and when the forces of the European colonial dominance have been dissipated by their seed-energies of greed and power, they... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Why are so many Americans depressed and suicidal?

We live in a toxic environment, we eat a great deal of food that is actually bad for us, we focus on what is superficial, we distract ourselves with shiny entertainment, we live a sped-up lifestyle and resist stillness, solitude, and delay of gratification... "Relationships" are often just encounters without much depth, and too much parenting is based on indulgence or punishment or abandonment... Education is about grades, not about teaching or learning the tools of living in the world as... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Kabu's post today inspired this rant which turned into a post.

It isn't the people of different countries at war or at odds even, with each other. It is the governments, the politicians and so-called leaders who make their decisions on behalf of everyone regardless of what we citizens believe or want. Especially now, when the American people are not in the least represented by our representatives in Congress, still less the ugly fellow in the White House pouting and tweeting and catastrophizing his way through an insane misadministration. It has always been... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, June 8, 2018

...and this

A fascinating series from NPR: https://www.npr.org/series/607483398/-howtoraiseahuman?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20180607&utm_campaign=goatsandsoda&utm_term=nprnews Sign in to see full entry.

Stewardship

Gorillas in the wilds of Rwanda are seeking out and dismantling poachers' snare-traps. https://matadornetwork.com/read/young-gorillas-working-together-destroy-poachers-traps-rwanda/ It comes down to this: Sentient animals learn about their environment, as human children do, learning day by day from their parents, and other people they meet. It has been observed that we are all role models of something, some understanding or behavior, to our children, and so we are also teaching our non-human... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 4, 2018

Commenting on Pat's post this morning...

There are two different groups of children that have been separated from parents. Those who came alone are placed with family or connections in the country, not detained. It is often the case that these people resist the government's attempts to keep track of these kids, and is probably for the children's own good. There have been reports about the 'lost children' that clarify this. If you want a source, I will try to find the one I found recently that clearly explains that the government not... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Another by Charlie...

The warning signs came, and were ignored, and went. And still they smiled, and followed the path up and up. Each time they were stopped, they were asked to ignore greater and greater evils. The wrongs were small at first, almost innocent. Understandable. Justifiable. Each new evil was an excuse to justify the next, and soon terrible things were as normal as could be. So they smiled and followed the path up, and up. And at each new turn, the path got narrower and narrower, and they would look... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Charlie wrote this over on Facebook

Kids are dying in the schools. Immigrant kids are being lost by authorities by the hundreds after being forcibly taken away from their parents. Black kids are being arrested for non-violent crimes, tried as adults, beat during their arrests, and sentenced to slavery in for-profit prisons, with judges getting kickbacks. Colleges are saddling students with lifetimes of crippling debt. The medical and insurance industries let people die or saddle them (and their families) with a lifetime of... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The wonder of it all...!

Our Kabu has just gone to Australia and back, a journey around half the planet or more... My trip was shorter, just 1500 miles each way, but a trip that a century ago would have taken weeks, and 50 years before that, years! Kabu would have been rolling on the ocean for months, after spending a year or more crossing the North American continent. I've heard that when a son or daughter of Ireland headed into the west to America, or sailed to Australia, the family held a wake for them, knowing the... Sign in to see full entry.

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