Gaza War

Politics for the people asks if the Gaza war is spreading. The Fifth Column says that there are 3 simple reasons why Israel is not a Terrorist State. I am dubious.

What bothers me most are the people who milk the video images for all they are worth. On all sides, they show civilians screaming and mourning loved ones. Both sides hold up their dead to the cameras. They do not show the soldiers and the fighting. They do not show the propaganda on both sides. IN a CBC radio interview people directly involved, on both sides, made similar comments.

If you are there, you do not hear or read all that everyone says.
They all feature people who claim, "He hit me back first!"

Someone has to be first to say 'enough', like the women in Dublin. Codepink is trying to tell the men to stop. It is interesting to read about those who say stop.
Protests continue across Ireland:
• Gaza Solidarity March Dublin 2009 - Photo Series and more photos
• About 100 people came out in Limerick today to protest at the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. - photos and report
• Brief video of SF MEP Mary Lou McDonald's speech at the Gaza Solidarity march - news, photos and video
• Cork Protests in ‘Disgust’ at Israel War Crimes - Photos and story
• Palestine Solidarity in Omagh - Photos and details
• 3rd Jan, Derry Protests Against Israel's Attacks on Gaza - Photos and report
• 5th Jan, Lurgan Palestine Solidarity Protest - more news and photos
• 6th Jan, Anti-War protest at the Israeli embassy in Dublin - Photo series
• 7th Jan, Cork does a stall and vigil for Gaza - Photo series

Protests continue across the World:
• Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza - ElectronicIntifada.net
• Riding on fire and a third intifada, by Ewa Jasieiwcz - read at FreeGaza.org

Those involved in a civil war, over land and territory, are raising children who only know death, despair and dying. You live what you know.

I am unsure what our governments are able to do if the people cannot stop the fighting. Like addicts, until you admit you have a problem, and will do something about it, they will not recover and heal.

January jumble

January is an interesting time of year.
Things quiet down. The tourists are not into snowmobiling yet, although the locals terrorize the lakes. Many 'cottagers' are still recovering from turkey tummy and holiday habits. The snowbirds have flown, many in November, and many businesses shut down for the month. The fox still ambles by daily. The birds continue to visit my feeders. (Yes, plural: we have one for the squirrels, woodpeckers, and two more for the smaller birds, and a bucket for the blue jays!)

The sun feels warmer, and the snow continues. We have had Lake Effect snow almost every day.
I have enjoyed snowshoes at the lakeshore. Despite the machines on the lake, I am still wary. Our lakefront is only just frozen. The melt we had last month left an open puddle.

The birds feeder, the 'squirrel-be-gone' feeder feeds squirrels, birds, raccoons, and all. You can see it on top with the lid off.

The feeder with the two iron birds is the favourite of the flying squirrel. The regular squirrels use it, too!

words, words, words

In the light of the news - there are words I never wish I heard...

• prorogue
• carbon sequestration
• sub-prime loans
• the big 3
• unk-unks: the 'unknown unknowns' (fer Heaven's sake!)
  

or revisited:

• "help affect positive change" (Sara Palin)
  
• coalition
  
• bailouts - (they don't work)
• contamination: in toys & food
• bisphenal - in plastics

or people I really didn't want to meet:

• Caribou Barbie
• Joe the plumber

But we will only be as happy as we choose to be. That goes for individuals, peoples, nations.
I trust you make good choices at home, work and in society. How about you?

Spirituality

I have been reading "Awakening the Buddha Within", by L.A. Das.

What a great text.

• Knowing truth is Buddha.
• Expressing truth is Dharma.
• Embodying and living truth is Sangha.

For us, as seekers, what matters is how we attend to the present (p. 46). I know I spend much time in personal reflection on my mistakes, more than the effort I put into the present. There is only the now. I often get stuck in the past.

Das says that this includes motivation, intention, aspiration, desire, hope and expectation.

Rev. Ed Bacon says that we must spend more time in reflection and experience that 'still, small voice'.

I hear that voice when I sit and talk to our waterfowl on our shores. Sometimes I capture them in photos, often I just feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face. It gives me a sense of this ecosystem we call earth. We are all connected, yet most of us feel disconnected.

Being in nature, since I cannot meditate well lately, works best for me.

Book Review: A Mother's Road to Kandahar

I heard of a terrific book. A Mother's Road to Kandahar.
Once I sell a few books of my own, I intend to invest in it.

It is about the difference between supporting the soldiers, and their families, and deploring the war on terror.
Support the troops but not the mission.

In a July 16, 2007 article in The Toronto Star bemoans the losses that families face.

Our beautiful men and women suffer horribly from PTSD. There is much denial. The young men and women who serve believe that they are doing good things, and they are, but there seems to me not to be much hope of enacting real change. It is so sad. I read Christie Blatchford's book, Fifteen Days, and it broke my heart. The soldiers truly believe in their work and the cause for which they fight - but they will not change the conditions, the history, the ongoing civil war that threatens these people without much loss of not only life and limb but mental health.

I have great doubts about this mission. I only hope that the powers-that-be are making the right decisions. I fear not. I fear for the well-being of our soldier's and their families.

choral music

I have been reflecting back on a life singing in choirs. I enjoyed it immensely. The recent holiday season brought back memories.

I grew up singing in our church choir, joining my parents at age 13. I was in the East York Chorus, with Albert Greer. I joined the Ottawa Choral Society in the 80s, and greatly expanded our repertoire.

When we sang Russian, it was amazing. I learned so much with our speech coach. I recall leaving the concert (it was Ottawa-with many embassies in the city) and seeing guns in the limos in their own specially installed holsters. Quite the time!

Christmas, of course, was a time of great joy. We found many choral books around Mom's house. They sang in Elderberries choir, a Muskoka choral group for seniors.

I imagine that over the years this artsie endeavour has been perpetuated by the incredible high school choirs, vocal teachers and Kiwanis Festivals that help shape and create an energy and spirit of soaring song.

In burying my mother, and going through her things, I found many artifacts that document a life well sung! She sang and danced in a group in 1937. I love the photo. They were a musical family. My aunt played piano.

My Town Mondays: football widow

Monday is football night in our home, my only part of town where I spend Monday nights.

The refrigerator magnet says it all =>
"If a man watches two football games in a row he should be declared legally dead."

It is a regular ritual at our house.
Mondays we stick close to home.

In the warm fall days Brian, my husband, would take his little TV and sit outdoors when we lived in the city.



These days it is a bit too cold for being outside . He gets himself set up where ever is most comfortable. If his team is playing, he'll wear the shirt. We put on a fire and sit, warm and cosy. he is not a yeller, a quiet man, I can read in the adjoining room if I choose!

We often make a crock pot of chili, or another TV dinner on football Mondays. I usually watch for awhile, at least eating dinner with him. He is happy to wax eloquently about the whole thing.

As a retiree is is a terrific hobby. He is out of his do or die football pool. Two missed team wins guesses, and you're out. He keeps stats on ledger paper (an accountant) - it is his thing, what can I say? Keeps him off the streets. It keeps him out of the bars, too, as he is a secret non-drinker. Long story, gotta read my book to find out about that!

It is easy to keep him company with the laptop: they always repeat the great plays! I like sitting in the TV room, trying to play string with the cats who get bored easily.

Eventually, we have to turn the sound off. It irks the way that a terrific play goes on, but the announcers spend so much time name dropping, or highlighting an historic career, that they miss key plays. My Ottawa son (age 23) is an American football fan, too. We sent him a 'lucky' team shirt for Xmas one year. We sit and e-mail is a parallel play sort of universe. When the kid's team makes a great play I cheer for him, when they don't I send comforting words. Sometimes we do on-line chats.

My kids have used Brian's football interest as a theme for gifts. I love the figurines.

I have learned a lot about American geography by watching and keeping my hubby company. We look up the weather and celebrate the fact that somewhere on our continent people can often wear shorts! We hate the fooforah...the big dudes seem to like to brag more than they do colour commentary. Sometimes if the games are tedious they do run on and on.

Gladwell has waxed eloquently in his blog, and accepted comments, about choosing teachers vs. quarterbacks. I am not sure I really 'get' him, I'd rather sit with a magazine than read pages online, but his original New Yorker piece says more that I like. A good teacher and a good quarterback have to coordinate the plays, but ultimately, it's up to the team!

Those are my Monday (and Sunday, and some Saturdays, and Thursdays, and any American holiday: see those college boys run with those nice tight ummm.... ends!). Bless them for the cheap entertainment! We don't do the parades, maybe our short attention span. That is a sign of dementia. (You can read about that, too!)

Skiers off-course

Interesting discussion re:

4 men who went out of bounds at B.C. ski area banned, billed
Mountain official calls their actions 'absurd' and 'arrogant'

There is some discussion on whether they should be billed, as it means people will try to escape and duck from rescue teams when they ought to be rescued. Where does the right of those to live dangerously balance with the rights of society to say live a little less dangerously?

Where does one draw the line? The North Shore Rescue volunteers have some policy ideas, but I remain on the side of billing, and trying to enforce those staying within boundaries.

I am a volunteer with Victim Services here in Ontario. I laud the work of my team leaders and trainers. Newly graduated, I continue to hold people like yourselves in high esteem.

That said, I wonder if you could wax eloquently: if those who move off the delineated, open boundaries, are they not trespassing in a way? I can see your points about people ducking rescue to escape the fees, but if the operators determine that it is unsafe, and they are liable for extreme costs in a litigious society, what else can they do?

If people are out of bounds for 15 min., and time is of the essence, how long do they wait? How do they determine to rescue or not rescue?

We have has a fair number of preventable accidents and drownings, further drownings in Central Ontario. Our EMS & volunteer teams are called out when the could be doing other work. In the meantime those on high powered machine on ice or lakes, continue to flaunt common sense. With the ice only a week or so in, we are inundated with these high-powered machines late into the evening. They roar across the lake, screaming power. My cat and I, having a nice walk, were quite shocked with the noise and the smell.

They also flaunt Marine Laws which prohibit the operation of PWCs so close to shore at high speeds. It in unenforceable.

The media is full of shrill family member victims who find someone to blame when someone dies, a house burns, a vehicle crashes, as a result of a self-inflicted wound.

What is your take?

the work ethic

The work ethic is an interesting topic in Canada. What with outsourcing, the developing world developing, and work being sent off-shore, there are those that bemoan the state of the economy.

If we go for the cheapest, like Cheap*Mart does, with undercutting, and forcing companies to use cheaper materials and labour, it is no wonder that small businesses are going out of business. I shudder when I see yet more big box stores in Muskoka.

I see this societal practice reflected in my classrooms. Back in my teaching days many students tended to tackle the "easiest problems". It is time to step up and create jobs through investment in local, regional, provincial, and national industries.

This past holiday season, the we had good news in that our retailers reported good sales. I hope this trend continues. Manufacturing is down but there is hope that things will continue on an upward trend in our region.

Brrrrrrr...a cold beginning to 2009

For me, this year, 2009, is one of review and reflection. But mostly gratitude.

While I 'retired' at age 50, I should have stayed on leave, and simply taken a break. The impact of caring for dying parents was way too much to think carefully about my career. Living and working in Cottage Country was impossible at the time. Stepping back, rather than retiring early, with a huge financial penalty, would have been a good idea. Hindsight is 20-20, methinks. I have had a few part-time jobs, and wrote a book (Living & Dying With Dignity) of my experiences, including much research into health care. There are many such books on the market, I wish I had read some before that part of my journey began. But there is only the 'now'.

And where will this journey lead? Today it will be out into the garage for firewood. Here we are: another double-digit below zero day. With any luck, despite the Lake Effect clouds and flurries, the sun might come out a bit more and we might get up to -10 C. but we are cozy with the fire on.

I love nature, the changing skies, the beautiful clouds, sunrises & sunsets. A squirrel just knocked on the window asking for peanuts. It upsets the cats, who like to watch the deck action (their TV!).

I will make no resolutions. Just on principle. We need to live every day in the present moment.

But all is not well around here. The anger continues in our town, with the economic downturn, and the incredible rainfall in July, that kept tourists and their $ away. The battle over the Bala Hydro Project, by Swift River Energy Ltd, continues. I am so tired of angst and fear. After a year of preventable deaths and drownings I seek some solace, still, in the blessings of our furry and feathered friends who visit every day.

I read a blog and her group of friends/bloggers are giving themselves the task of posting a word for this year. For me it would be gratitude.

In 2009 I am grateful for this property, bought by my folks in 1960 for $2000, with a mortgage for 50% of the cost! It is a spot of extremes: temperatures (+30 in summer and -30 in winter) , views (sunrises, sunsets, lake ice vs. winds driven water), isolation in winter and a teeming, crowded lake in summer.

My children are far away. Extended family members, the ones nearby, are not all speaking to me! So it is time to be grateful for the ability to make choices and to make change.

I am grateful for my family, our home, our wildlife, our relative health, and our 3 cats.
What are you grateful for?