Tree's ocean of thought

83 Million

2024-01-28T10:58:00.002-05:00

6 hours. Guess they weren't buying what he was selling.

A Sad Day for Women's RIghts

2022-06-25T08:15:00.000-04:00

America is based on Freedom. In the several hundred years since this country was formed, challenges to what defines Freedom have come and gone.

Is a slave free? NO, they are not.

Is LOVE free? Yes it is, and the notion that someone else could tell another person who they can and cannot love is the height of NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

The people selected to decide how those freedoms are defined, have to first and foremost decide how those freedoms affect others.

For example, we have Freedom of speech, but if you are shouting Fire in a crowded theater and people die trying to escape, were you free and above recourse to behave in such a manner? Those people paid to sit in that theatre (most likely) do you have the right to act in a way that they have to leave and their happiness is impinged upon?

A woman's body can be forcibly violated. In all horrible manners including incest and gang rape, and just plain old date rape with tranquilizers.

HER BODY.

So now another person can tell that woman what she can do for medical treatment for the aftermath of such an event. Will she be denied treatment for STD'S? Will she be denied psychological care? Will she be denied the ability to refuse to allow foreign material (sperm) to remain in her body, Impacting her ability to enjoy the freedom of her own body? How are any of those tings hurting someone else, except perhaps denying the rapist the satisfaction of knowing they are the ones in power?

Because rape is about power.

Birth control and abortion have been part of history since humans became sentient.How many newborns have been abandoned in woods, buried, and in recent Maine headlines, left in a gravel pit with cord still attached in sub freezing temperatures?

What about the people who let their dog in the next morning to find it had retrieved the tiny corpse and left in on the doorstep?

How many women have died from sepsis, high blood pressure, bleeding out?

How many children have gone hungry, how many infants have suffered starvation and malnutrition?

To the Pro Lifers who believe pregnancy is God's will, and if the mother doesn't want that baby, their church will find parents-one could argue that if it was God's will, then infertility is also God's will, and if someone can't "make" a baby, maybe God does not intend for them to have one.

I realize this post is titled Women's Rights, but I am going to shift over to gun laws.

One of NRA's drop kick defenses is that ""Guns don't kill people, people kill people.' A recent article in several Maine newspapers talked about gun suicide. The head of SAM (Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine) was outraged that he was not consulted for his opinions for the article. SO he posted a 15 minute egotistical rant on You Tube.

Which included the above NRA slogan.

Well, yes, more people die from overdose that guns. Does that mean we should make Opiods legal, anyone can get them? They are a medication used to treat pain, why should we have to ask someone's permission to treat our pain?

Guns have one purpose. They are made for killing. They don't heal. The only way they make someone feel better is by allowing them to destroy life. Now we are once again back to power. The power of the penis, the power of the gun barrel.

We are all supposed to be treated as equal. But if one has more power than the other, are they equal?

The SC judges are people, are they equal? If so, Clarence Thomas is also a lawful subject. Does he want his mixed race marriage outlawed? Does he want to go back to slavery?

And Susan Collins-you were doing ok until you got swept up with the Trump mania, and if your head had not been so far up his rear, you would have realized why we were all begging you NOT to confirm any of his SC nominees.

Sad that all Susan Collins has done for Maine and this is her legacy. She is only one of 50 or 54 who voted to confirm, yet even the National news is pointing a finger at her. Yes, it's hard to say NO to a narcissist, but you were there because Maine thought you could.

Maine middle of the Pack

2020-07-10T06:33:00.000-04:00

Maine has made strides in its ability to test people for the coronavirus since the pandemic first arrived here in March, but state health officials still see a need to keep expanding that capacity so that new outbreaks of the infection can be quickly detected and contained

https://bangordailynews.com/2020/07/10/news/even-as-maine-tests-more-for-the-coronavirus-its-in-the-middle-of-the-pack-nationally/

Janet Mills orders large businesses to enforce face covering rules

2020-07-09T08:12:00.002-04:00

Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday ordered large businesses and food service establishments to enforce the wearing of face coverings and renewed a state of civil emergency for the fourth time amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The state of emergency was due to expire on July 10, but is now in effect for another 30 days. Mills issued an executive order on face coverings that requires large retail businesses, restaurants, outdoor bars, tasting rooms and lodging establishments in Maine’s more populous cities and coastal counties to enforce the state’s face-covering mandate. It is effective Wednesday.

https://bangordailynews.com/2020/07/08/business/janet-mills-orders-large-businesses-to-enforce-face-covering-rules/

Looks like Augusta has finally been put on that list.

Happy September

2016-09-02T11:59:00.003-04:00

Tree

Ugh

2016-05-28T10:28:00.002-04:00

I've lost my muse. SO hard to find inspiration these days.

The Stolen Child

2016-03-26T16:33:00.000-04:00

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lie a leafy island
Where flapping Herons wake
The drowsy water-rats,
There we've hid our fairy vats
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries,
Come away, O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than
              you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands, and mingling glances,
Till the moon has taken flight;

To and fro we leap,
   And chase the frothy bubbles,
   While the world is full of troubles,
And is anxious in its sleep.
Come away! O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than
               you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car.
In pools among the rushes,
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout,
And whispering in their ears;
   We give them evil dreams,
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Of dew on the young streams,
Come! O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than
you can understand.

Away with us, he's going,
The solemn-eyed;
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hill-side.
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast;
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the woods and waters wild,
WIth a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than
he can understand.

W.B. Yeats

Publishing

2016-02-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

I have had two columns published in hard copy where people pay for subscriptions...for free. So I guess I am starting off on neutral ground-not paying to be printed, nor receiving compensation.

I have been blogging for years and years. I started off with yahoo 360 under a different user name. I was all over yahoo back in the day-late 2004/early 2005, primarily as a regular in one of the top science chat rooms.

I haven't been in a chat room in years, but the way the old yahoo rooms worked, thirty users could intereact live. We could have different types of font, colors, sizes, so as comments came up on the screen in list fashion, it was easy to see which user was posting by their fonts. Very often two or three conversations would be happening at the same time, interspersed with random spam posts and people coming and going were noted in small red font in between the live posts.

There was a room list to the side that showed everyone in the room, and you could click on one of those names and it would open up a new window where you could have a private conversation with that person.

Sometimes you could get kicked out. Folks also had the opportunity to block certain posters. Things would really get hopping on the weekends...the screen going so fast it was hard to keep up, nevermind monitoring the three private conversations you might have going.

We talked about everything-mostly current affairs. I remember The last Bush running for re election mentioning chat rooms in a speech-he said it awkwardly . I can't remember the exact wording but it was clear he had never been in a chat room. But he referred to them as public opinion on a certain matter.

Well, it was also about that time that we started to lose rights to peacably assemble, and freedom of speech, due to the passage of an act that pretended it was all in our best interests.

The chat room was systematically shut down. Someone using multiple computers, or computers they hacked, to fill the chat room up with clones. Like, "Sillyrobot1" "Sillyrobot2" and so on. No attempt was made to hide the cloning. Two or three of the thirty slots were alsways occupied by duds, or observers, who never said anything, but then the cloning started. If you were lucky enough to be able to get in the room, one or two regs might have squeezed in as well, really limiting the conversation.

So we moved on to another room by passing the word along. Then the clones moved in that room. We had crashed three rooms by the time I gave up. I had started blogging with 360 and kept that up until they closed THAT down. They supposedly gave use the opportunity to migrate our blogs to another yahoo platform-our profile, I think-but only one of two of my blogs migrated. The primary really outspoken one vanished. I was getting several hundred pageviews a day back then.

I don't keep copies of my posts-hopefully I keep the original photos somewhere.

I got mad at yahoo and migrated the remaining blog over to multiply. Shutting 360 really split us up- I had a lot of good pals blogging around the world and we all went different directions. I tried multiply and didn't like it, so I started up a new blog here on blogger, this one. I recently went back to read my blog that moved to multiply-I hadn't been there in years, and found out it's gone. All of multiply is no more. They probably sent a notice to my old yahoo email.

Now I have found a quasi solution to things that disappear on the intenet. Managing to get published in hard copy with a small circulation. Maybe somewhere 100 years from now someone will be replacing the floor on an old house and find my column spread out as an underlayment. Or maybe, once my head shot is added, my column might find it's way as a puppy toilet. More than likely, it will go up in a cloud of fire and smoke up someone's chimney-but at least it will leave a trace of it's demise, unlike publishing on the interent, where things just seems to vanish without a trace.

We Have A Deal

2015-12-18T16:54:00.000-05:00

Over 190 countries have agreed to reduce their carbon emission enough to limit the global temperature average to a 2.5 degree Farenheit rise over pre-industrial standards.

The few countries that did not contribute to the agreement are ones whose own government is in turmoil due to civil wars.

"If trees absorb carbon, why can't we fight increased carbon doixide levels by planting more trees?" The WIllow asked me.

"hmmm, I am not sure, perhaps the location of the carbon in the atmosphere -if it is in the upper levels, for example, it may not be readily available for absorption by plants," I responded.

But I was't exactly correct. Because part of the limiting of carbon emissions is calaculated to how much CO2 the plants and oceans can absorb.

Perhaps that's why when I drive around my own small community, my gut wrenches when I pass gravel pits that are gangrenous holes in the Earth. Clearcuts where the local loggers go in and level everything, leaving a scarred landscape.

We have a new neighbor. A little ways up the road, a lot was selectively cut a couple of years ago and then put on the market. 20 acres, with pond frontage. I didn't think it would sell, it sits rather close to some folks that take living out in the country a little too seriously and give meaning to the word ramshackle. (so do I ,but they have a bit more going on than I do)

This fall a nice little camper appeared, and the guy started clearing some of the lot. After a few weeks, the camper was gone. About a month ago, the gravel trucks started banging up and down our road.They were brining it in, not taking it out. They made a very long drive out of sight in the direction of the pond. I have been dying to go snooping and see how close he went to the pond. But the WIllow has suddenly turned righteous and won't allow it, so I plan on waiting until the pond freezes over and then walk up the pond and see what I see.

I did talk her into loading our neighborhood on google Earth. We could see that he would have to go quite a ways to build down by the water. We could see all the neighbors houses up the road, and their fields and yards and outbuildings. But we could not see our house, or our drive, or the goat pasture, or the lawn. I could see the trees did look a little thinner than in the woods directly behind us, but I was glad to see that in the 20 years that I have been here, the canopy has not been harmed to a noticeable extent.

Now the woods farther behind us is a different story. Between our road, and the next road that runs parallel to it, there is about 2 miles of woods, and that runs for at least five miles before it is intersected by another road. An acre is 200ftX200ft, a mile is over 4000 feet...so that's a lot of acres of woods behind us.

But a big chunk of it is owned by Plum Creek lumber. About five years ago I could hear heavy equipment in the woods. It went on for two years. I tried to sneak in there at one point, but chickened out. Google Earth tells the story. They raped it. A vast expanse of lighter vegetation-stump growth-and exposed rock.

There is about a half mile along the road between my place and the next house on my side. When I bought this land, it was old growth forest. Then the local lumberjack went in and over cut it. He didn't clearcut it, but the trees he left were too spindly to withstand the microburst that came the next year. Then it was a clearcut.

I sat at my desk looking out the window the next summer and watched clouds come over the house. As they drifted away and reached over the clearcut, they disappeared-they dissipated. That's how much heat was rising off the scarred landscape.

That was about ten years ago, and the balsam fir and white pine seeded and had enough light to grow. The stump growth started to grow as well. This fall I asked permission from the landowner to tip some greens for garlands, and he gave it to me, gladly. I was psyched, it looked like it would be very easy to gather some brush.

He told me he had given someone else permission to tip there a year or two ago as well.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I decided to start tipping. I found that the previous person had stripped the trees. The younger firs had trunks and tops and that was it. The larger firs had been tipped back so hard they hadn't recovered. The stump growth was ten feet high and so thick I couldn't get through in places. I would see fir trees, bushwhack my way through the blackberry brambles and stump growth, to find two or three decent tips in a grove.

I did get two deer ticks lodged in the back of neck as a bonus.

I gave up. I ran a little short on balsam tips for a garland order, so I headed down to my firs on my own property. The tips were GORGEOUS. I have been tipping those trees nearly every season for almost 20 years, but I always tip looking toward the next year. If the tip is small, I leave it. On bigger branches I take small tips and leave the branch to grow out more tips for the next season.

But tell that to people who want to make money. Tell them to leave some for next year-ask them to leave a few trees to maintain a canopy-

do you think they'll make that deal?

I still Heart Pope Francis!

2015-09-24T15:35:00.001-04:00

First I would like to say that I am not a Catholic, or techically officially aligned with any religion. I have studied many of them, and continue to do so. I am not an Atheist, as I recently answered the query from visiting Jehovah's Witnesses. They looked rather surprised when I told them I had just been reading Genesis.
My father's side were devout Catholics, right through the reformation, having a hidden chapel on the premises in England. They were actually even involved in the Gunpowder plot.

My grandmother's home in the US was next door to a Catholic church, and as long as she was able my Father's sister never missed a mass.

While others had ooed and ahhed over the royal wedding, it was the election of Pope Francis that raptured me.

Even as a youngster with little to no religious background, I identified with Saint Francis of Assisi-he could talk to animals! When the new Pope, hailing from Argentina, took the name of Francis I was enamored.

And I have not been disappointed. Ever.

While I am a supporter of same sex marraige, I do not disagree with his remarks about family. I think family is people that love and support each other. I may be wrong on this, and you may choose to disagree.

Afterwards, from the balcony of the Capitol, he blessed the viewers. And then he did something that I viewed as unusual -he asked us to pray and bless him, or, if we could not pray, to send him well wishes. I would ask the same of you on his behalf. :)

Here's a transcript of the speed he gave to a joint session of Congress this morning, courtesy of Time. com.

I find the bit he left out intriguing...and still part of a powerful message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Pope Francis addressed a joint meeting of Congress in a historic speech Thursday morning.

Here’s a full transcript of his remarks.

   I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility.

    Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.

    Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides us with a good synthesis of your work: you are asked to protect, by means of the law, the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human face.

    Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Here, together with their representatives, I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest day’s work, to bring home their daily bread, to save money and – one step at a time – to build a better life for their families. These are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way sustain the life of society. They generate solidarity by their actions, and they create organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need.

    I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways, especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their insights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active; they keep working to build up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are working to realize their great and noble aspirations, who are not led astray by facile proposals, and who face difficult situations, often as a result of immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue with all of you, and I would like to do so through the historical memory of your people.

    My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self- sacrifice – some at the cost of their lives – to build a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.

    I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.

    This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that “this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom”. Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.

    All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.

    Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice. We are asked to summon the courage and the intelligence to resolve today’s many geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world, the effects of unjust structures and actions are all too apparent. Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.

    The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.

    In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery, born of grave injustices which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.

    [Editor’s Note:The following section, which was in the prepared remarks, was not included in the speech.] Here I think of the political history of the United States, where democracy is deeply rooted in the mind of the American people. All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776). If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance.

    Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.Here too I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to Montgomery fifty years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his “dream” of full civil and political rights for African Americans. That dream continues to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of “dreams”. Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.

    In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation. Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but it is difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present. Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past. We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our “neighbors” and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this.

    Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12).

    This Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us. The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.

    This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.

    In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.

    How much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as in the past, are working to deal with this problem.

    It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good” (Laudato Si’, 129). This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order to “enter into dialogue with all people about our common home” (ibid., 3). “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (ibid., 14).

    In Laudato Si’, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to “redirect our steps” (ibid., 61), and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a “culture of care” (ibid., 231) and “an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (ibid., 139). “We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology” (ibid., 112); “to devise intelligent ways of… developing and limiting our power” (ibid., 78); and to put technology “at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral” (ibid., 112). In this regard, I am confident that America’s outstanding academic and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.

    A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a “pointless slaughter”, another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers”. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.

    From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223).

    Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.

    Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.

    Four representatives of the American people.

    I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.

    In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.

    A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.

    In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.

    God bless America!

Blame the Hungry and Homeless

2015-09-16T18:56:00.000-04:00

I had a conversation with a woman today that made me cry.

I was in a waiting room, and she was the owners wife. We exchanged idle chit chat, she discussed at length with my encouragement the winterizing of her inground heated pool. Their enormous motor home was parked outside.

She checked her phone and commented that Governor Lepage was in another battle.

"Oh, the Land for Maine's Future?"

(Maine voters approved a bond in the amount of some millions of dollars to purchase vulnerable habitat. The Governor has refused to release those funds to try and coerce the legislature to do what he wants)

"No, he wants to create a rule that single people on food stamps cannot own more than 5000 in assets."

This led to a conversation between us about the less fortunate in society. I told her that I give 5 bucks to the sign wielding homeless on the streecorners, she countered with they can turn around and walk up to the local
walmart and get a job.

I asked her how someone who has no phone and no address and no where to even take a shower can apply for a job?

She said if they are given money they will just spend it on drugs or alcohol.

I told her I didn't care how they spent the money I gave them.

She said they must have some kind of money coming in, disability or whatever. I told her that some people were incapable of filling out applications for help, or may not be able to get transportation to the agency.

I find this attitude so prevelant in middle and upper middle class society.
"Get a job!"
"Stop freeloading"
"I work my ass of to pay my bills and they are getting food stamps!"

"I am paying for those food stamps!"

Yet the fact that most of those taxes go to fatten the coffers of 450 families that control 90% of the money in this country is perfectly ok.

I once calculated that food stamps make up .002 percent of the total federal budget. If you pay $10,000 a year in taxes, $20 of that goes to food stamps.

I will also add most of the people around here that have decent jobs work for the state. Their paycheck comes from taxes.

Poor people pay taxes too. Tax on gas, tax on non food items, tax on cell phones.

And listen to them have a fit about poor people who suffer from addictions and drink or smoke!!

Even though tobacco taxes make up 5% of the state budget.

Go ahead, blame the hungry and homeless.

If I had to stand on a streecorner begging for money, I would probably need a drink myself.

I certainly wanted one after that conversation.

I Heart Pope Francis

2015-06-18T20:24:00.000-04:00

"Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth,"

Pope Francis

The Secret

2015-06-06T20:42:00.001-04:00

Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.

I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me

(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even

what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,

the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can't find,

and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that

a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines

in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for

assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.

Denise Levertov

Jupiter conjunct moon

2015-03-30T19:57:00.000-04:00

Tree2015

Mink Track

2015-03-27T19:18:00.002-04:00

Tree2015

March sunrise

2015-03-14T20:02:00.001-04:00

Tree2015

Health Care, insurance workers comp

2015-02-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

I have had health issues through the passage of my 50 plus years on this planet.

Many years ago, I hurt my back, and went to a health care provider. I was examined briefly and diagnosed with strained back muscles, and told that I could work 4 hours per day despite my protestations.

So I worked a couple of four hour shifts-I will add here that my injury was not work related-

After three hours I was barely able to stand, and my boss/owner took one look at me, asked what the doctor said, and told me to get myself down to the ER because something was not right.

Luckily for me, the ER doc was sympathetic and suggested a MRI in a few days from a travelling unit that would be coming to the ER.

So I signed up , and lo and behold I had not one but TWO herniated discs in my spine.

Well, I was pretty mad at the first doc, and of course it became a situation where the docs all scrambled to cover him because they are all terrified of malpractice suits...although I was just venting and not planning on legal recourse.

I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon, and he examined me with a series of pinpricks, asking me if it hurt here, or there? and in my ignorance, I agreed hesistantly at one point and the doctor announced I was lying and not a candidate for surgery and basically tossed me out of his office.

I was officially diagnosed with degenerative disc disease at that point.

So I spent a couple of miserable years raising toddlers, with a cranky back, babying the kids as well as myself, learning to get by on next to nothing.

Learning to sleep with a pillow between my knees, rolling a tennis ball while lying flat on the floor on my butt cheek to lessen the excrutiating pain of sciatica.

I also fell down a flight of stairs with the Firebird in my arms and fractured my sacrum during this time...

All the medical community fought me-I had to go to physical therapy which left me in tears on the floor of my living room, one of the few times I had to resort to prescription painkillers, and I had to get off the floor and drive a forty mile trip to pick the script up from the doctor and then have it filled at the pharmacy.

I credit the tennis ball deep tissue massage-which I picked up off the internet-with finally curing the last of my back issues

Fast forward another decade to my current employment.

About ten employees not counting the owners including myself. The last month all the building equipment chores have fallen on my shoulders, and pain started to occur in my elbow. Still I was pressured through the grapevine of command to achieve a certain goal, and being a proud person, I kept wailing away at the project.

My arm started falling asleep at night, waking me throughout the night, pins and needles, being so bad in the morning I could't move my hand.

The owner was due back in a few days, and I bent to task. Then he reappeared and decided to convert the project into an assembly line, and asked me to pre drill 500 holes by hand with a cordless drill.

I drilled 20 holes, put down the drill, gathered my things, and told him I could not possibly do that because my entire arm was seized up. He stopped me, and said I could work on another part of the project, which involved more drilling an screwing, and then left. My pride injured, I applied myself to the task for the remainder of the shift and went home in agony.

The following day I called in and went to the local health care center, where I was seen by a new staff member, not a doctor, not sure what his title was because he was so new his picture was not up in the waiting room.

I explained to the receptionist, and then the nurse, my symptoms. The nurse initially found the pulse in the affected arm was 10 beats per minute slower than my other arm, then convinced herself they were the same, although it came it at 62, when my normal resting heart rate is 80.

I was subjected to a barrage of questions about smoking and quitting smoking options, and I note that although I reported smoking less than a pack a day, in my discharge papers it said I was a heavy smoker.

Then the not-a-doctor came in, and turned out to be touch phobic. I explained I had pain radiating from my shoulder to my hand, loss of strength and feeling in that hand. He performed a few cursory taps checking for carpal tunnel, which I subconsicously wondered if that was the issue, but the pain radiated down the center of my forearm.

He asked a couple more questions, I pointed to the tip of my elbow as being particulary painful, and then he declared tennis elbow, prescribed the RICE treatment-rest, ice, compression, elevation.

I asked if I should take off work, and he said, well, most people have to work, wear an elbow support, ice afterwards, anti-inflammatories before.

I went home and started doing some internet research. Yes, I had tennis elbow. But the most painful point was indicative of golfer's elbow, another tendon. The pins and needles, loss of feeling and strength, pain in the shoulder? Radial nerve tunnel syndrome-a potentially crippling condition.

I knew there was no way I could hold a drill another day, so I called in. I took the following week off at my own expense. I rested. After a week my arm was no longer falling asleep at night.

Another half a week and I decided to return for "light" duty. I worked yesterday merely weighing out 14 pounds of chamomile blossoms into half ounce portions and bottling them.

Last night my arm kept me up half the night. My forearm was burning and swollen.

I called in again today.

I am on agricultural pay, so I am not covered by worker's comp. Even if I was, the doc said to go back to work, and if I was not better in 2 weeks to have physical therapy. After that, surgery is the only option, scraping the involved tendons with limited success.

Well, if you are still with me, here's the beef:

Instead of paying me to take three weeks off, and stopping these small businesses from abusing their help as slave labor, the system decides that I should continue working, suffer, pay for physical therapy, and then expensive tendon surgery=more than the job would pay me in three years-all in the name of productivity.

That is one messed up system. Instead of paying me to rest, an insurance company would pay the therapist, the doctors, the surgeons....(well their pay is taxable income, after all) follow the money baby.

Crescent Moon, Venus, and Mars if you can find it

2015-02-23T20:15:00.002-05:00

Tree

Sonnet on the Author's Birthday

2015-01-30T17:31:00.000-05:00

Sing on, sweet thrush, upon the leafless bough,
Sing on, sweet bird, I listen to thy strain,
See aged Winter, ’mid his surly reign,
At thy blythe carol, clears his furrowed brow.

So in lone Poverty’s dominion drear,
Sits meek Content with light, unanxious heart;
Welcomes the rapid moments, bids them part,
Nor asks if they bring ought to hope or fear.

I thank thee, Author of this opening day!
Thou whose bright sun now gilds yon orient skies!
Riches denied, thy boon was purer joys—
What wealth could never give nor take away!

Yet come, thou child of poverty and care,
The mite high heav’n bestow’d, that mite with thee I’ll share.

Robert Burns

Rock Tree

2015-01-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

Walk in the park
By the pond
A sturdy trunk
Branches hacked
By rough pruning

Yellow lichen
Moss
Speckle the skin
gnarled and beaten
Knowing sentry
Of countless tales

Close your eyes,
Touch the bark
Flash of granite
Solid and rough
Gravitas
Of the rock tree

Raymond Foss

Go Your Own Way

2014-12-22T22:55:00.000-05:00

Loving you
Is it the right thing to do?
How can I ever change things
That I feel?

If I could
Baby I'd give you my world
How can I
When you won't take it from me

You can go your own way
Go your ownway
You can call it
Another lonely day
You can go your own way
go your own way

Tell me why
Everything turned around
Packing up
Shacking up's all you wanna do

If I could
Baby I'd give you my world
Open up
Everything's waiting for you

You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day
You can go your own way
Go your own way

You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day
You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day

You can go your own way...
Call it another lonely day...
you can go your own way...

Hector, Wayne Anthony / Eriksen, David / Gates, Gareth Paul / Tennant, Lorne Alistair.

Winter Heavens

2014-03-27T09:12:00.000-04:00

Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive
Leap off the rim of earth across the dome.
It is a night to make the heavens our home
More than the nest whereto apace we strive.
Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive,
In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.
They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam:
The living throb in me, the dead revive.
Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath,
Life glistens on the river of the death.
It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt,
Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs
Of radiance, the radiance enrings:
And this is the soul's haven to have felt.

George Meredith

USPS and Affordable Health Care

2014-03-21T12:30:00.000-04:00

These are two separate topics that I would like to discuss. I will try and stick to the facts and not insert too much personal opinion.

First, the United States Postal Service, or USPS and some changes that have been implemented that have recently been brought to my attention.

I have had a PO Box for over a decade. I have found it to be a secure location to receive my mail, and later as I entered the world wide web, a way to maintain some anonymity. I have come across some pretty scary individuals both in real life and on the internet. Some of the latter have shown they had every ability to get into my computer systems and I really didn't want them finding out my physical address.

Having a POBox means I have to show up at the Post Office periodically to collect my mail and drop outgoing mail in the slot on the wall. There have always been two slots, one for Local Mail, and one for Out of Town mail. The local mail is for stuff sharing that zip code, and the postmistress could just take that box and give it to the driver to sort for deliveries. In recent years, the Out of Town Box has had various hubs that it goes to and then is directed from there. Now I think there is only one hub, in the state, at least to the best of my knowledge.

Then a couple of months ago I noticed a change. The slot wall had been rebuilt. There was one slot, reading, "ALL MAIL".

I stopped in my tracks. I craned my head around the corner and commented on the change to the postmistress. To me, this meant one thing, loopholes were being closed.

The postmistress just shrugged and said if someone had something going local they could just give it to her and she would give it to the driver, because it really didn't make any sense to have the mail delayed several days to make the trip to the hub and back when it was going to someone down the road.

So, a few weeks went by. Sometimes when I am expecting something in the mail, instead of making the trip I would call and ask her if the specific item was in my box yet. She was quite cheery about this request, and oftentimes would keep an eye out for something so she wouldn't even have to go peep in the box if I called.

I made a call, and got a different person. He was quite offical sounding and took a few minutes riffling through all my junk mail to come back with a negative reply. The next day I called again, and received the same person and response. Hmmm. I hoped that my regular postmistress was just on vacation because, although this new individual was not unfriendly, I was starting to dread calling to check if something was in my box.

Finally the expected mail arrived (I gave up calling and just waiting a few more days and drove over to check).

That was a month or so ago, and I haven't made the trip since. But then I started worrying because I pay the fee for the box twice a year, and if you don't pay in two weeks from the due date the notice says they will start returning your mail, so I called to see if the notice was in my box. Same new person. I was all set for now, but the notice was coming out this month and would be due the end of the month.

Now, when I first rented the box, the fee was something like $10 a year. That wasn't too bad. After all, I was saving them a lot of work driving my mail around town and stopping to put it in my box- rain, snowbanks or shine. Then the cost started going up. And up. And up. I now have to pay $28 twice a year, or $56 annually for the smallest box.

Usually I just grit my teeth and cough up the money. But everything else is going up too-taxes are due, car needs work, gasoline prices are through the roof; heating costs have been exorbitant this winter.

So I decided that was that, I will close the box and have the mail forwarded to my tin can at the end of the road.

I stopped at a Post Office yesterday to pick up a change of address form. I have filled a lot of these out over the years. You put your name, current address, your name, new address, and mail it to your old post office so they can forward your mail. It's good for a year, but in the old days postmasters would continue to forward the mail if there were any stragglers.

Once I got a piece of mail that had gone to four different post offices and was still delivered. I thought that was amazing!

Instead of a little postcard in the postoffice, there was a bulky glossy envelope, encouraging me in big letters to change my address online. Inside was chock full of coupons for homeowners insurance, and satellite Tv among others. Hidden in between was the card I was looking for. I looked it over, and on the back, where you used to fill in the post office you wanted your mail forwarded from, was Postmaster, USA.

Wow Uncle Sam is getting a pretty long arm!

Moving on, (pardon the pun), next topic, Affordable Health Care.

Basically I just want to discuss health insurance.

One woman I know told me she had been sick before Thanksgiving with an upper respiratory infection. She pays, for herself, $400, yes four hundred dollars, a month for health insurance. Her deductible is $2500 a year. Yes, two thousand, five hundred dollars a year. Meaning, she has to spend that much before her insurance will pay a dime.

She couldn't afford to go to the doctor. She suffered for months, finally spending several days in bed. A neighbor brought her some soup. Finally she went to the local clinic, and got a script for an inexpensive antibiotic. ($40 for the meds plus probably $100 to get the script). She felt better and after the script ran out she was sick again. And last I heard she was still sick.

I read that our president was holding a meeting promoting affordable health care, and read an email from a young couple. The husband earned about 30,000 a year, and the lowest premium they could find was $300 a month for husband wife, and one child. They wanted to know how they were supposed to afford $300 a month on that income.

Supposedly (I heard this second hand) the president's response was that he was sure if they cut back on their cell phones and TV packages they could come up with enough for the premium. What would they do if husband got sick? The comments I read from folks regarding this were mostly (over 90%) aghast at the response.

Most of them argued that in this day and age a cell phone was mandatory to find and keep a job. And most of them had already cancelled their cable TV packages.

My personal opinion is that, in this struggling economy, if folks are forced to pay 8% or more of their income for insurance, they are not going to have that money to spend bailing out the economy. And if they do get sick, they won't be able to afford to pay out of pocket until they meet the deductible.

One woman said (I just read this on the wire today) she couldn't afford to buy glasses for her daughter, because either it was not covered or she had to meet the deductible first. The answer was some long winded response about minimum income and percentages and subsidations and medicare expansions.

By the way, medicare is not free, they WILL make a claim on your estate after you die for both premiums and recovering costs of any healthcare you receive.

So let's see, so far, from what I understand, people can't afford to go to the doctor if they have insurance. What will this do to doctor's incomes? If they are salaried with a group, like a hospital, then logic dictates that at some points positions will be cut due to lack of demand, meaning less doctors available.

And that brings me to my last point. Health insurance companies can dictate what doctor or hospital you can go to. There are a number of cancer centers that insurance providers are not including in their list of places you can go.

So, you get that expensive insurance with the high deductible figuring if something major happens, like cancer or heart trouble, you'll be covered (as long as you can pay that deductible first). Well, that's nice. Now it turns out that your insurance can tells you which doctor you can go see.

I don't think you have to be genius to see where that could lead. Doctors who are proactive, prescribe expensive surgeries and top of the line medications could be quickly earmarked and shut out. Doctors that shrug their shoulders, do nothing, and tell you to make your final arrangements will be a gold mine.

Pray it's not so.

To The Sad Moon

2014-03-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What! May it be that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case:
I read it in thy looks; thy languished grace
To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.
Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me,
Is constant love deemed there but want of wit?
Are beauties there as proud as here they be?
Do they above love to be loved, and yet
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess?
Do they call 'virtue' there— ungratefulness?

by Sir Philip Sidney

The Rock Cries Out to Us Today

2013-08-15T22:02:00.004-04:00

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Mark the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spelling words
Armed for slaughter.
The rock cries out today, you may stand on me,
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A river sings a beautiful song,
Come rest here by my side.
Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more.
Come, clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I
And the tree and stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow
And when you yet knew you still knew nothing.
The river sings and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing river and the wise rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,
The African and Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the tree.
Today, the first and last of every tree
Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the river.
Plant yourself beside me, here beside the river.
Each of you, descendant of some passed on
Traveller, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name,
You Pawnee, Apache and Seneca,
You Cherokee Nation, who rested with me,
Then forced on bloody feet,
Left me to the employment of other seekers--
Desperate for gain, starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot...
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru,
Bought, sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the tree planted by the river,
Which will not be moved.
I, the rock, I the river, I the tree
I am yours--your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage,
Need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts.
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me,
The rock, the river, the tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes,
Into your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.

Maya Angelou