"To dwell on the past..."

                                                     FROG JUMPED RIGHT OUT IN THE ROAD
                                                     WENT SOMEPLACE HE SHOULDN'T HAVE GO'ED
                                                      NOW HE'S JUST A MEAL FOR THE ANTS
                                                    SURE LIFES' GOT SOME CANS BUT A LOT OF CAN'TS


been hearing a lot about
REPARATIONS
on the news today

reparations-the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.

retribution=punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act.

so here's the deal
some people came to america
they had guns so they took a lot of land from the 
people who were here
they wanted to make a lot of money so they started big farms
they had to have people work the farms
the people who were here already died when they were forced to work
so the farmers went to africa to buy people to work the farms
there were africans in africa who would capture people and sell them
all the people who were sold to the slave traders were caught by africans
the africans who were brought to america to work on the big farms called
plantations eventually got freed from the slavery but they were still poor and 
could not buy much property
now there are people who think that these poor african descendants of slaves
should be compensated for being subjected to prejudice which kept them
in poverty....except Jay Zee and Beyond-Say  who are pretty rich
so the deal is this
if you give poor people money they may blow it all on stupid investments
give poor people 50 year no interest loans to buy and own property
then they have "EQUITY"   the golden word
with equity you can borrow money and if a person inherits a home they can
save money because they don't pay for someone else property
but don't just provide loans to africans as that would not be fair
let anyone who has a small amount of resources get a real cheap
long loan 
as has been recently pointed out the largest lynching was in New Orleans
over a hundred years ago
they lynched eleven Sicilians 
people hated Sicilians
also the Chinese were hated and not allowed to live just anywhere
also the Polish, the Germans, the Cajuns, 
at one time or another there was prejudice against everyone


but the reparations seems like a thinly veiled retribution to me

now it seems to me that some people don't really want a cabin a "black horse" and
forty acres   some people are plenty happy with an apartment
 or a motor home
and a decent place to park it for half a year or so...

the reparations argument is 
" nonsense upon stilts"
and
somewhere "between absurdity and obscenity"

"To dwell on the past is to rob the present.
But to forget the past is to rob the future."  Chinese Proverb

"El Morzillo"

"Zen does not confuse spirituality..."

Miss Ratty Ratface comes to visit me in my camp every day...

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while
one is peeling potatoes.  Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."
                                                Alan Watts  "The Way of Zen"

Phoebe Ann Moses

"A tragic situation exists..."

                                               Eastern Glass Lizard- dead in the road

beautiful legless lizard which looks like it has green metal flakes under the skin

a good reason to drive with care when going down the country roads

"A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph
but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him."
                                                                               George Orwell

seems that the fox in the last post was probably not a kit fox but a swift fox
I believe the distinguishing marks is the stripe on the tail
always get a second opinion as some things you read are wrong
I once read a story in the newspaper about how armadillos lay eggs!
I have recently read about the "San Joaquin" fox which is endangered.
Haven't seen one yet.

Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll

"There should be no forced respect for grown-ups..."

       
                                               miss armadillo digging her holes

                                               mr fox gets a drink of water

the armadillo video was taken at night in the Atchafalaya basin.
There were several large holes that had been excavated by this
armadillo in a couple of spots. Perhaps in the same way that
a bird carrying sticks to make a nest causes changes in the bird
which facilitates them laying eggs and nesting this hole digging
activity in the armadillo may cause the animal to begin her rearing
of young. I believe they have delayed implantation also.

The fox video was taken in the desert near the Imperial Dunes in
California. The nearest surface water was several miles away.
Sometimes they would come at night and drink for a full minute.
This animal may have have been at this site several times this night,

"There are living systems, there is no living matter."  Jacques Lucian Monod (bio-chemist)


"There should be no forced respect for grown-ups.
We cannot prevent children from thinking us fools by
merely forbidding them to utter their thoughts; in fact
they are more likely to think ill of us if they dare not say so."
                                                         William James

Harry Callahan inspector #2211

                   

"In the name of the bee..."

                                                        live oak tree=habitat

                                                           Carolina wren

                                                        red-bellied wood-pecker

                                                            grey squirrel

                                                       some sort of fly creature



after spending 4 days at this little grove of  live oak trees
on the banks of the west pearl river
I was rewarded with the company every day of these animals
the oaks, the spanish moss, the resurrection fern and the lichens
are the animals grocery store
and every day they would arrive and go from tree to tree
poking around for bugs and caterpillars and various other
groceries
the live oak trees live for hundreds of years and the wood is too
hard to use for most construction so there are still some very
old trees....but some of the trees became prized for their
very tough and hard wood and they were sought out and
harvested for ship building

"In the name of the bee
And the butterfly
And the Breeze- Amen!"   Emily Dickenson

and when I start to get too hot
I think of captain Oates
"I am just going outside,I may be sometime."

"If this life be not a real fight..."

                                          baby gator
                                          young cottonmouth snake
                                          ruby-throated hummingbird



was driving down the road
in the Atchafalaya basin last week and spotted this
2 foot gator in the road
then 50 yards further down the road
there was this young cottonmouth snake
I try to pay attention so as not to drive over these
animals in the road because I always see a few
dead ones that have been crushed
 the hummingbird apparently is more acrobatic
than I would have thought
I was sitting by the feeder when this one came for
the nectar and I did not know what I had for a picture
 until I looked at the image on the camera
always a surprise with these fast birds

as some people may know I spent some time around camels
the one humped kind
I had an experience which somewhat changed my view of life

I was leaning up against the loading platform of the camel ride
my head hurt because I had too much to drink the night before
as usual
and I heard someone behind me laughing
so I turned around and a young girl was walking up the steps
saying she wanted to feel the camels hump
sure I said and I had Omar the camel lean up against
the platform so she could feel the hump
then I noticed that where her eyes should have been
there were two empty sockets
I was flabbergasted
here I was in pretty good physical shape and moaning
about my problems
while she was laughing and without sight
I have thought about all of the tactile experiences
I had by being able to pet the zoo animals
over a 15 year zoo experience and thought how wonderful
it would be for the visually impaired to experience
touching a rhino or a bison or even a peacock not to mention
all the other animals
animals die in the zoos every day
it just happens
if someone could pay to have all of these animals
professionally mounted so that there could be a zoo
for the visually impaired it might change a persons
life like that little girls laughter changed mine
just a thought

anyhow now that I am 33 years without using
alcohol I can see how fortunate my life has been
to have had such good animal friends
and even the dead ones could be put to further use

"If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally
gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game
of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will."
                                                           William James


Vladimir Ussachevsky

"Life is hardly respectable..."

                                            tree frog on the ground-Atchafalaya Basin


heard some bad news on the radio
suicide biggest killer of young people
what a dumb idea
a lot of folks dead themselves due to
having a poor thinking day
drugs can do that to your brain
this is an idea from a fellow who was
around a lot of drugs and a lot of lost people

"Here's the way I feel that these drugs affected us.
They cut off our periphery time sense, so here we
just were, floating. Our minds were scattered.We
weren't worrying about where we were going or
where we had been. After a length of time of this,
we wanted to go somewhere. We saw that there is a
light ahead; there are things to be done, in each
community and in each heart. So we started trying
to make it towards this light, but we could not steer
the boat. We had turned loose the tiller, the boat was
awash in the sea. When you're lost in superstition and
dope, you're lost. A lot of people were."  Ken Kesey

now I do not want to put down other peoples entertainment
but so that people know
there are no super heros
no spider man or super woman
Harry Potter can not do magic
game of thrones is a bad example of
a world
in fact
and facts make for good companions
much better than magicians and sorcerers
i think one of the reasons young people give
up on life is that they never get a good grip
on the real world
too much superstition

there are things to do which are
interesting and will help you and
others- you have to find out what they are
there is a fellow who wrote a good book
about his experiences in 4 concentration camps
Victor Frankel "Mans Search For Meaning"
he had a system of thought he called
Logo-therapy
he had a chance to see if it was workable
when he was in 4 concentration camps
his idea was that people have to have goals
to give meaning to their lives
I like to observe nature and try to help
out with picking up some garbage
it is not much but it helps me and nature

"Life is hardly respectable if it has no generous task,
no duties or affections that constitute a necessity of
existence. Every persons task is their life preserver."
                                                        Ralph Waldo Emerson

Herbert B. Khaury