When out here no place to go but in when indoors no place to go but out
When I’m out here,” he said, “there’s no place to go but in. When I’m indoors, there’s no place to go but out in the yard.“
“That’s where you’re wrong, my friend,” said a voice.
“You don’t have to stay in that dirty-little dirty-little dirty-little yard,” said the goose, who talked rather fast. “One of the boards is loose. Push on it, push-push-push on it, and come on out!”
So said the goose to Wilbur the pig in Charlotte’s Web.
Please excuse me, I am going to go and push on some boards in the fence around me and see if I can’t find a way out.
But be warned, after getting out, Wilbur says, “If this is what it’s like to be free,” he thought, “I believe I’d rather be penned up in my own yard.”
just another straw is always sunrise somewhere still holds, reveals much
A graffiti-covered trail in Yosemite national park on Sunday. Photograph: AP
I have never been to Yosemite and most likely, I have to admit, I will never get there.
But I get pleasure knowing it is there.
I know its a manipulated moment in time, but after years of seeing it, I can still stare in wonder at Ansel Adams photograph, “Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park.”
It was with sadness that hit my core when I read that someone had visited Yosemite and had to leave a record of their visit with spray paint.
Stupid I know.
Misplaced and maybe over reacting.
But hear me out.
I can spit in any direction and hit more problems with this world than can be collected in an encyclopedia.
Climate, politics, human rights, civility, guns, housing, wages, food and almost any other story that appears on any front page, and it becomes quite the pile of straw on the camels’ back.
I saw a story on NBC news last night about abandoned disabled people in Ukraine that if it didn’t break your heart and drive you to your knees to beg forgiveness from God for being part of the population of a world that allows this to happen then I don’t know what to say to you.
There is enough, too much, we can agree I think.
And Yosemite National Park got tagged.
Why is this the straw that seems to break my back?
I would say it goes to state of mind.
Yosemite is not easy to get to.
I don’t think it is the type of place you say, “Hey lets go spend a day …” but more of the place where you might say, “Let’s plan …” and you make the trip.
According to the National Parks Website, reservations are needed during peak hours.
Once at the park and the decision is made to hike the Yosemite Falls Trail, visitors are advised that:
Start your hike early; this trail can become very hot mid-day in the summer. By starting as early as possible, you will be able to hike during the cooler part of the day. The upper portion of the trail is exposed, receiving no shade until late afternoon or early evening.
Avoid becoming dehydrated or experiencing heat exhaustion. Drink plenty and drink often; pace yourself; rest in the shade; eat salty snacks.
Sprained ankles and knee injuries are common on this trail. There are many areas of loose sand mixed with rocky terrain, which makes for slippery footing.
Stay on the trail; there are numerous steep drop-offs and ledges off-trail.
Know your limits. Pre-existing medical conditions can be easily exacerbated on the steep ascent.
Do not swim or wade in the creek above the waterfall.
The Parks Website states, If you make the one-mile, 1,000 foot climb (via dozens of switchbacks) to Columbia Rock, you will be rewarded with spectacular views of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and Sentinel Rock. From there, it is worth the time and energy to hike another 0.5 miles (0.8 km) (some of which is actually downhill!) to get a stunning view of Upper Yosemite Fall. Depending on the season, you may even feel the mist from the fall, which may be welcome respite after the tough climb.
I am assuming that some one read all this, knew all this, packed up there gear, maybe a lunch, water, good shoes and then made sure they had at least two cans or colors of spray paint all ready for the hike.
Who thinks this?
Who plans this?
Why?
What does that say about us?
Can you hear them going over their supplies?
Granola Bars?
Check!
Water?
Check!
Spray Paint?
Check!
As I have already admitted, in today’s news about the climate, politics, human rights, civility, guns, housing, wages, food and almost any other story that appears on any front page, there is plenty to get me going.
As I said, I saw a story on NBC news last night about abandoned disabled people in Ukraine that if it didn’t break your heart and drive you to your news to beg forgiveness from God for being part of the population of a world that allows this to happen then I don’t know what to say to you.
But the story of man’s inhumanity to themselves is as old as Caine and Able.
To willfully damage Yosemite with malice aforethought?
John Muir was the man who set up some of the first boundaries of what became Yosemite National Park and camped their with Theodore Roosevelt that led to lots of parks and preservation of wild areas for the benefit of all of us (Though I have to point out it was Mr. Lincoln who signed a bill on June 30, 1864, granting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias to the State of California “for public use, resort and recreation,” the two tracts “shall be inalienable for all time“).
Mr. Muir once said, “This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising.“
It is always sunrise somewhere.
It is always a new day.
But this place, once the sun comes up, reveals a place I don’t recognize anymore.
The story deals with the complex of idea of the benefits derived from the re-release of near extinct predator animals back into the wild.
What I found somewhat refreshing in the article was one, its use of language and word along with the near blasphemous concept that science might be and maybe should be questioned.
Question the science?
Gosh!
This haiku is one of a couple or more in a series based on this same article.
There were so many good word combinations that I couldn’t pass them up.
And readers of this blog will know that from time to time I struggle with the weight of effort of producing a daily Haiku and any thoughts I may have about the words and time that went in the Haiku that day.
This daily schedule of missing a day can bring on a personal mental paralysis wherein writing these entries becomes impossible.
I learned to deal with this by not dealing with it and let it go.
Then when I look at my register of entries and see blank days with no post, I will grab a topic or book or poem for a source and produce a series of Haiku to fill in those blank dates.
This is one of the great benefits of this effort being my blog and my blog, my rules.
It IS cricket because I say it is.
It is ‘according to Hoyle’ because I say it is.
Thus I have this series of haiku based on this article and the Ms. Weston’s word choices.
I should also mention that this ‘lack of output’ coincided with a trip up to see our son and being away from a computer keyboard for a long weekend and I am playing catch-up.
festina lente make haste slowly in long run but eat everyday
Festina Lente, in the latin, or ‘make haste slowly’ or ‘more haste, less speed.’
It has been adopted as a motto numerous times, particularly by the emperors Augustus and Titus, the Medicis and appears over and over in literature.
To combine the two concepts a logo of an anchor and a dolphin together was been devised.
According to Wikipedia, “The meaning of the phrase is that activities should be performed with a proper balance of urgency and diligence. If tasks are rushed too quickly then mistakes are made and good long-term results are not achieved. Work is best done in a state of flow in which one is fully engaged by the task and there is no sense of time passing.”
I am reminded of this phrase, ‘festina lente’, as I watch this country and this government deal with the problems of high inflation, high cost of food, high cost of housing, high cost of fuel, high human cost of guns, lack of baby formula, and any number of the current crisis’s that are today’s news.
Festina lente is the watchword from history for today.
Responses to these problems should be performed with a proper balance of urgency and diligence.
If tasks are rushed too quickly then mistakes are made and good long-term results are not achieved.
We can all agree on that, right?
I am reminded of a time in the history of the United States called the Great Depression.
The people of America finally got so fed up with the festina lente attitude of the Government in Washington that in one if the great electoral upheavals of all time, they voted in Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.
President Roosevelt appointed social worker, Harry Hopkins as the Secretary of Commerce and in that role, the day after the inauguration in March of 1933, Mr. Hopkins started spending money to provide relief in the form of food and housing.
He was told he couldn’t do that.
He was told that such a program could not work.
He was told that giving out money that way would not succeed in the long run.
Mr. Hopkins replied, “People don’t eat in the long run, they eat every day.”
her eurosceptic disciples misunderstood misrepresented
her opposition centripetal tendencies of the E Union
I love the way Brits can coil syllables together like a snake.
Consider this paragraph from a recent story on Brexit:
“He said that at no stage, despite all her frustrations with the EU and her many battles (which she won!) did Thatcher ever want to leave the EU. Unfortunately, her soi-disant Eurosceptic disciples misunderstood or misrepresented her opposition to the centripetal tendencies of the EU.“
No Haiku For You 