Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Please accept my apologies. I'm afraid that the recent heat wave of record-breaking proportions (by one or two degrees in reality) is entirely my fault. No, it's not because I drive an SUV approximately 32 miles a day. ;-) The real reason is because I am absolutely burning up inside and all that heat has to go somewhere or it might literally cook my insides. This is probably some pre-menopausal red giant phase which will eventually end in collapse into a smaller, cooler white dwarf phase. So just bear with me as we all suffer through it. It won't last forever. I'm not sure if there is any way of "stopping" it or reducing its intensity. Perhaps we should set a challenge, in the tradition of fairy tale heroes, to find a solution to redirect or absorb this heat? Please feel free to offer suggestions, except to kill me because that wouldn't work anyway since that would cause me to blow up into a supernova and destroy everything. ;-)

Thanks for your understanding. And really, I am terribly sorry for all this discomfort and am wishing for some real relief soon.

Sincerely,

Rae Ann aka Vicious Momma

Matters of Faith

Some of the buzz today has been about revelations of Mother Teresa's spiritual struggles. It seems that everyone is so surprised about it. But really, wouldn't it be even more surprising, and possibly disturbing, to learn that she never had doubts and struggles with her faith? She was human after all.

In some scientific circles it's even being considered that she was some sort of closet atheist. I guess that reaction is understandable when so many of those people consider calling something "religion" is the ultimate insult because it implies blindly accepting things despite any contradictory evidence. Perhaps Mother Teresa can minister to them even after her death by showing them that even the most faithful of religious people don't always blindly accept things without question. Wouldn't you imagine that scientists would recognize that already if they are so smart and logical? But I guess even they can confuse faith and certainty.*

My point here is not to bash atheists or scientists though. My point is to say that the lesson in Mother Teresa's struggles is that we all are human with the same emotional, intellectual, and spiritual conflicts regardless of how we label them. And her example clearly illustrates what our relationships with God are supposed to look like. If we never question things we never learn and grow. God knows that and that is why we have our minds and souls anyway. God wants us to evolve, not just physically but also spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and socially.

I think that it's entirely possible that Mother Teresa suffered some depressive stages in her life. She was a woman, and we women do go through stages in our lives that can affect us in every possible way. At the time of her publicized "crises of faith" she was past her reproductive years, and I must wonder if she had some sadness about not living the fullest possible life as a woman. Yes, I know that her relationship with God was utmost and her service to humanity was her "calling." But she was also fully human and could not exactly escape all the human needs.

This is where I think the Catholic Church has gone way off track in their teachings. I just don't believe in celibacy. It's not normal, and it's not necessary to be celibate in order to have a deep, meaningful relationship with God. I think God wants us to fully experience our humanity and the bodies and minds that we have. God does not think that sex is dirty or sinful. Why in the world would God 'create' sex and require it for our own reproduction (creation of new life) if it was a bad thing?

Of course, this is only some twisted kind of psychological 'thought experiment', but I wonder, how would Mother Teresa's views, thoughts, feelings, faith, and so on have changed if she had ever experienced the total physical union of love with a man? And by extension, how would those things have changed if she had born children from such a union? Surely she would have recognized the divinity incarnate in deep human love and reproduction. And the darkness that seemed to torment her might have been lightened by her appreciation of the power of the human body to celebrate God and Creation in that way.

Certainly, all the suffering and poverty that she saw in the world would challenge even the strongest faith. It can be hard not to ask why God allows such things in the world. But perhaps that's like asking why we must crap. It's just the world working according to the "Natural laws" prescribed by God. Why would God want to go around breaking the Laws of Nature? That wouldn't teach us anything but confusion. If you had created a Universe would you go around messing it up with random changes? Well, I wouldn't. I'd want to watch how it grew and evolved without my interference.

But that's not to say that God has abandoned us and the Universe. God is always here/there for us. Although we are "separate" from God in some sense, He has provided us with ways of being closer to Him. I'm sure that Mother Teresa knew these things intellectually. And it's perfectly acceptable that doubts about this truth entered her mind.

It would have been fascinating to meet and talk with her.


* On further thought, I'm afraid that paragraph sounds a little too crotchety. I certainly didn't intend for it to come across that way. Apologies about that.

Chalkboard

make your own chalkboard

List

Things that need fixed:

1. laptop (needs speakers and the battery charging pin-hole thing broke)

2. Centipede game (trackball is out of track)

3. microwave oven door (falling apart)

4. electric outlet downstairs (replacement)

5. Corvette lights (opening switch went out)

6. Sony Vega TV (won't turn on)

7. swing frame (needs welding)

8. credit card reader (for business, it's just completely f'd up)

9. beverage refrigerator (door falls off)


I'm sure there is more, but isn't this enough?

Startled by the Obvious

Do not use my name for evil purposes, because I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.

Exodus 20:7 (Today's English Version)

Also known as the Third Commandment, or the Second Commandment for Catholics and Lutherans

How Religions Start

Thinking back to the time of the earliest Homo Sapiens it seems there must surely have been some highly intelligent individuals who thought of questions like "Why am I so different from the other animals?" He might have noticed that humans look somewhat similar to the other ape species, but how did we end up different?" These are not new questions that have arisen only in the last couple of hundred years.

Maybe some guy thought up something like "I can see some greater wholeness to all of this world and I will call it God." He figured out that we are the "highest" forms of life and tried to figure out how that happened. That intuitive knowledge about ourselves and our universe is what he called "God spoke to me." Where else did these ideas come from? He didn't know about brains and neurochemicals and all the other biological stuff that makes up our consciousness and creativity. At that time his revelations about his thoughts were novel and revolutionary.

So he told others what he knew, and his explanations made some sense of otherwise unknowns and people talked about them because new ideas tend to stimulate people that way, even way back then. ;-) And he was probably the family or community or tribal "wise man" that everyone trusted because he had been right so often in the past. So an oral tradition of passing along these ideas and stories began to grow and spread.

So over time maybe some people would ask, "Why do we believe these things?" And many people would say, "Because so-and-so told us and he's always right." And maybe they got angry when their accepted ideas were questioned without the questioners offering better answers. Some basics of human nature probably haven't changed all that much since then.

Aside: A Question of Time

There is no dividing line or boundary in "real time" evolution. The timeline of human evolution constructed by paleotheorists is rather imprecise in when exactly the different Homo species lived and died. When they say that the Neanderthals disappeared it doesn't mean that one day they all just disappeared. It took thousands of years for them to die off (or be absorbed into Homo Sapiens, my own particular pet idea). What do we think really happened in the time between this species and that species? The changes were gradual, not instantaneous. I suspect one might could apply some kind of quantum or whatever view to the evolving human populations and see that at the individual and small groups levels the forward movement in development isn't always obvious. Well, maybe that's a really whacked out thing to say. I don't really know. Anyway, my point is that it's wrong to think of these different periods of time as distinct or discreet in that one starts and one stops and there is no overlap. There is a lot of overlap.

The Relevance of Religion

Eventually new evidence is discovered that challenges old ideas. Not everyone is open and accepting of their long-cherished knowledge being questioned. But some people can take new knowledge and integrate it with the old, while yet others will completely dismiss the old ideas as worthless and accept the new, sometimes as blindly as some refuse it. Like with the "timeline" of evolution, there aren't always distinct boundaries within the range of beliefs.

Looking back at our guy who "saw" God and thought his intuitions were God speaking to him, we must remember that his language and ability to describe his intuitions were much more limited than ours today. The old stories were told in the ways that made sense at their time. And at one time these stories were novel and revolutionary not because of the words they used but because of the ideas they conveyed. The revolutionary idea behind God was that there is a reason why we are humans and not apes, or pigs. ;-) In our modern time we know the real, scientific reasons we are human, and not apes or pigs, but knowing the ways how doesn't diminish the significance of the idea itself. Well, I don't think it should anyway.

Even today, we are still processing our intuitions and observations of the universe. It's important to respect the origins of these processes, whether the origins are explained in the modern parlances or the old oral traditions (mythology and religion). They are basically explaining the same things if you can reduce the words into the ideas that they convey. And this is one of the reasons why it bothers me so much when Religion is vilified and degraded: becasue doing so completely disrespects the intelligence of our ancestors and the evolution of our minds.

Sure, over history many terrible things have been done in the name of God or religion. But so has it happened in the name of love and any other ideas. Does that make love and other ideas necessarily evil? Of course not. You can't really blame an idea or feeling for the actions of evil or bad people. And that is the meaning of the Commandment quoted at the top. Do not use the name of God for wrong purposes.

Well, here in the Baptist dominated Bible Belt, people are told that this Commandment forbids using God's name in an invective phrase, such as "Goddamn!" or "Oh my God!" or whatever endless variations people can create. Strictly, or Fundamentally speaking, I suppose that's true enough, but it's just completely naive and misses the deeper meaning of the Commandment. Besides, when someone exclaims, "Oh my God!" in surprise or any other strong emotion God knows those are really just prayers. ;-)

The people who are really breaking the Commandment are the ones like Al Gore, the current AntiChrist, who invokes God's name for his own selfish purposes (fame, glory, power, influence, and so on). But there are others who are abusing God's name as well. They are the ones who try to tell everyone that a belief in God and religion is the source of all the problems that have ever existed. How is it not obvious that the Commandment is a warning against any kind of abuse of power and control? And these antireligionists, or militant atheists as some call themselves, are really just false prophets abusing the name of God by spreading lies of ommission about religion and its influence on the evolution of mankind.

Well, of course, who am I to indict anyone? But I do want to show people their misunderstandings about the role of religion and a belief in God in our human development. There is a deeper meaning to the stories and mythology of religion, and to deny that or to demean it is a asking for trouble. ;-)

China, Britney, and Other Observations

China

More Chinese manufactured toys have been recalled due to lead paint and shoddy workmanship. Well, I'm kind of concerned about all the recent recalls of Chinese products. Some have suggested that it's not really "that big a problem" or that more attention is being paid to China's errors than those of others these days. If you have young kids with popular toys that were made in China, then it is that big a problem. Duh. And if your tires have exploded or if your dog died from bad food or if you were poisoned by tainted toothpaste, it is that big a problem. My concern is that the Communist government of China, in its movement into their own form of Capitalism, is just not playing by the rules. They seem to be making their own rules which aren't exactly ethical or fair. And what of our huge 'trade deficit' with China? My prediction is that it will shrink considerably as more and more crap from China is discovered to be crap and fewer and fewer Americans tolerate it. And maybe they should start balancing things out a little differently if the quality of what we're getting is so low. Of course, there are some quality products from China too. But that's not what I'm thinking about here. Basically, I think that when an institutionalized atheist communist government tries to do capitalism they will have to learn that quality matters as much as price, and that is the kind of 'ethics' that institutional atheism doesn't teach. Well, neither does communism for that matter.

Britney

She is clearly suffering from some severe mental illness. Perhaps it's postpartum depression or maybe even bipolar disorder. Both of those conditions can manifest themselves in erratic, reckless, and psychotic (lost touch with reality) behaviors. Exactly like Britney has demonstrated over the last year. Someone please have her committed to a mental hospital so she can get the treatment she needs before she ends up dead. It's really sad for her two young sons when she's obviously not interested in being a good mother to them and when her skank of an ex-husband looks like a saint in comparison to her. Well, maybe he's not really all that bad after all? If any "regular" person did the things that Britney has done they would most likely end up in a mental hospital. I recall a couple of college classmates who "flipped out" (had psychotic episodes of crazy behavior) and had to leave school for a while for treatment (both did finish their degrees). Getting treatment for mental illness is not a stigma or anything to be ashamed about. On the contrary, not getting treatment is the thing to be ashamed about when there are so many things available nowadays, especially to those for whom money is not an obstacle. If there are any people who are still close to Britney they really must do some kind of intervention before it's too late.

Weather

I absolutely hate the Weather Channel. I'm certain that they are one of the biggest players in the whole "global warming" hoax. I mean, just look at how the channel has changed and become so slick and highly produced in the last 10 years. Climate change is big business for them and they are milking it for more than it's worth. For several years now we've been comparing the Weather Channel's forecasts with our local meteorologists' forecasts. The Weather Channel is consistently off by 3-4 degrees, like if the local guys say it will be 96 the Weather Channel says it will be 100. The same is true for the cold weather forecasts: the Weather Channel consistently says it will be 3-4 degrees colder than what the local guys say. And the local guys are always more accurate. You'd think that after so many years of being wrong in their forecasts that the Weather Channel would try to be more reliable. Well, no, apparently reliability and accuracy aren't their primary motivations. Their primary motivations are to promote extreme weather and climate change and to increase their profits. I really wish someone would do a big expose and reveal the Weather Channel's corruption.

Local Government

Recently we've been learning about the wide extent of corruption in our local government. Apparently, people have no qualms about exploiting public money for their own benefit. This is the core reason why communism and socialism will never work well. One of my favorite high school teachers used to talk about how communist and socialist systems tend to promote people wallowing in the "muck of mediocrity." The longer I live the more I see he was absolutely correct about that.


Jesus, why didn't someone alert me to that typo in government?

HOT

I think that title is a good subsequent one, and I'll like the way it looks on the sidebar. ;-)

It is HOT here, as it usually is in August. Yesterday was 94 and today it is 95 and tomorrow is supposed to reach 97 and then Friday is supposed to reach 95. But no, it's definitely not a sign of any kind of global warming or climate change. We have hot times in the summer, usually in July and August. Seven years ago when my youngest was born, it was 96 (Aug. 6).

Well, whether or not it is remembered as normal by everyone, it's still miserable and worthy of complaint. Just like the aches I get every month. ;-)

Anyway, school starts tomorrow. Wow, this summer has flown way too fast, and it's the first time I haven't been really ready for school to start. It could have something to do with the kids being old enough now for us to really enjoy being together. And we've had a really fun summer.

But something else really bothers me about this starting school in early August. It makes no economical sense in any way. Here we are at the peak of the hot weather and TVA is bitching about record power demand. How much sense does it really make to go and start school at that time and add even more stress to the power system? Knox County has a lot of schools and that means a lot of air conditioning. There should be at least another month of summer break or we might really cause some global warming! ;-)

SEX

How's that for an attention grabbing title? ;-)

Top 10 Reasons Why Men and Women Have Sex

Women

1. I was attracted to the person
2. I wanted to experience the physical pleasure
3. It feels good
4. I wanted to show my affection to the person
5. I wanted to express my love for the person
6. I was sexually aroused and wanted the release
7. I was "horny"
8. It's fun
9. I realized I was in love
10. I was "in the heat of the moment"

Men

1. I was attracted to the person
2. It feels good
3. I wanted to experience the physical pleasure
4. It's fun
5. I wanted to show my affection to the person
6. I was sexually aroused and wanted the release
7. I was "horny"
8. I wanted to express my love for the person
9. I wanted to achieve an orgasm
10. I wanted to please my partner

Source: "Why Humans Have Sex." (PDF) Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss. Archives of Sexual Behavior, August 2007.

Never Trust a Pig

From the Wiki article:

Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and small animals. Pigs will scavenge and have been known to eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, tree bark, rotting carcasses, excreta (including their own), garbage, and other pigs. In the wild, they are foraging animals, primarily eating leaves and grasses, roots, fruits and flowers. Occasionally, in captivity, pigs may eat their own young, often if they become severely stressed....

Pigs harbour a unique (when compared to other domestic animals) range of parasites and diseases that can be easily transmitted to humans. These include trichinosis, cysticercosis, and brucellosis. Very commonly, pigs are also known to host large concentrations of parasitic ascarid worms in their digestive tract. The presence of these diseases and parasites is one of the main reasons why pork meat should always be well cooked or cured before eating. Some religious groups that consider pork unclean refer to these issues as support for their views.

Pigs are extremely susceptible to pneumonia, usually caused by weather. Pigs have small lungs in relation to body size; for this reason, bronchitis or pneumonia can kill a pig quickly.

Pigs can be aggressive and pig-induced injuries are relatively common in areas where pigs are reared or where they form part of the wild or feral fauna.

Domestic pigs are often inbred, leading to the expression of recessive traits. Congenital malformations are common. One such malformation is the duplication of a pig's head.

Traffic Jam of the Brain

Sitting with the thinker
Trying to work it out
It's a traffic jam of the brain
Makes you want to scream and shout
Presidential party
No one wants to dance
Looking for a new star
To put you in a trance
Let's go all the way
Let's go all the way

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Let's go all the way

"Let's Go All the Way" by Sly Fox

Snakeoil Sales in the Marketplace of Ideas

Lubos recently posted an interesting and stimulating essay on the market of ideas and how it might work better in science. Well, I'm not really going to talk about that detailed of a topic but more of a survey of one of the problems with a market of ideas. (We're only wading in here since my intellectual tide is so low. ;-) )

Every market that has ever existed has had its share of snakeoil sales. This is just one of the inherent traits of an open and free market in which all types can participate. There will always be room for less than honest people trying to make a buck off of gullible and/or desperate people, whether they are offering some miracle cures for ailments, a utopian sociopolitical system, a perfect religion, a scientific theory, or any other good, service, or idea (or combination of those). It would be nice if I'd go and list a bunch of examples of each type and how and why they fall into the snakeoil sales category. But can't everyone already think of some examples? Besides I don't want to get caught up in some "debate" about which examples are or aren't snakeoil. That's not my point here. (I'm using that reason because I learned it from an "intellectually serious" person. ;-) )

Okay, now what was I going to say? Sometimes I crack myself up and lose my train of thought. It's an occupational hazard to being the Sacred Fool. ;-) Well, crap. That train's done left the station. I'll have to wait until it comes back around. Sorry.

La, la, la, la, la. Well, here comes another.


The previously mentioned Lubos essay got me into a miscommunication with someone. I was trying to help him save some time by telling him that something was snakeoil and why it was snakeoil. I was only trying to tell him the "bottom line" but he didn't want to hear it for some reason. Some people are like that though. I'm like that too, actually. I like to think things out on my own before I decide if some advice is valuable or not. Anyway, some people too readily dismiss some ideas which is as much a problem as too readily accepting them. Sometimes it is hard to know which is the snakeoil and which really is a good new thing. But things being hard to do shouldn't mean that we shouldn't try to figure them out.

So now what? We know that snakeoil will always exist and that some people will buy it right up without any thought and that some people will quickly know that it's snakeoil and not buy it at all. And we know that sometimes fights break out when the two different types of people start talking about the snakeoil. But we also know that sometimes fights break out because some people who make snakeoil will say that the good stuff isn't good in an attempt to make more money. It's all part of that dishonesty trait that all snakeoil salesmen have.

Well, what in the world can you do to maintain some peace in the marketplace when there is all of this fighting? And how do the customers know who to believe and what to buy? How do the good guys convince the people that the snakeoil guys are lying and not to waste their money? Testimonials. (See, I'm the Great Wizard of Hoes, and I'm giving out prizes to the fearless few who dare to listen. ;-) )

Testimonials are when someone tells you from their own experience that something works well and is a good value. I guess testimonials vary in value too depending on the giver's and receiver's own traits, and that is why they aren't always successful. (And why my own testimonial was dismissed in the previous miscommunication.) Of course, the snakeoil salesmen can make up and/or buy fake testimonials too, and that further complicates things.

You know, that train just stopped. I think I'll get off of it and see about another one. Wait a minute. Why am I talking about trains when we're supposed to be wading in a low tide?

Okay, sorry, this is how things go when you are constantly interrupted with "momma, momma, momma" when you're trying to think and write.

Maybe what I was going to say is that sometimes there are people who just have to try that snakeoil for themselves just so they know for sure, even when they've been told plenty that it really is snakeoil. And even though that is going to cause problems in the marketplace, if it's going to be a truly free and open marketplace then they should have that freedom to try the snakeoil if they really want to. Of course, we must have laws to protect people from things that are obviously more dangerous than not, but I don't want to get in a debate about examples of those right now either. ;-) (I've already covered some of those in the past anyway.) And there will always be a few people who just don't ever realize that the snakeoil is exactly that. Maybe they like it? But it is their choice, I suppose.

So there you go. I hope your feet aren't too soggy, but maybe it wasn't too hard to see the point of wading instead of diving (not that there's anything wrong with diving). I haven't "solved" any specific problems here, but I hope I've at least shown that when looking at certain concepts it is necessary to accept some "pre-existing conditions" (or "assumptions", I guess, is what the serious people call them ;-) ), like the existence of snakeoil. You don't have to dive too deep to see the bottom when you're wading in the low tide. And sometimes that's a good thing.


The fine print: In case it's not obvious, I really did intend to use the Wizard of Oz, a snakeoil salesman himself, as an ironic allusion.

The Dark Side

The dark side's callin' now, nothin' is real

"On the Dark Side" by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band

Sometimes I have the opposite of Messianic fantasies. Sometimes I wish I could be the vigilante anti-hero who rids the world of all the asshole bullies running around being mean and nasty. If I had the gumption to write fiction I'd tell the story of Rae the Emasculator, a modern female incarnation of Vlad the Impaler. But instead of impaled bodies the Emasculator would string up all the nuts of the asshole bullies. Of course, my weapon of choice would be a hoe. ;-) Maybe sometimes it would be a razor sharp one for when time is at a premium, and maybe sometimes it would be a dull, rusty one for when I want to devote a little more time to my task (and want to inflict more pain.) Some men truly do not deserve to have testicles.

You can't have light without dark. Just last night I was watching a show and heard a guy say that if you played a guitar on Mercury you wouldn't hear the sound because there is no atmosphere to transmit the sound waves. Well, of course, I had learned that in school but hadn't thought about it since then. It was one of those "oh yeah" moments. Just because we have no way of detecting or sensing something does not mean it doesn't exist. Those guitar strings are still vibrating and sending out waves of energy even though we can't hear them. We all have a dark side even if we don't recognize it or acknowledge it. The Universe has its Darkness too.

Not to sound all Star Wars or anything, but this light and dark balance stuff has been around a lot longer than George Lucas. When I was a kid I sometimes secretly wanted to be Darth Vader. The power of the dark side is seductive. The ability to crush your enemies with your mind was very appealing to a girl who was frequently by bullied by boys. Before the boys grew bigger than me I used to kick them between the legs when they were mean to me. (the Emasculator tendency started young) But after they outgrew me I had no physical means of fighting back. But if I could have crushed their nuts with my mind, there would presently be quite a few sterile bullies in the Southeast.

Well, I suppose I've frightened every male who has happened to read this. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about as long as you are nice. And why would you expect anything less from a Vicious Momma? ;-)


PS Another little bit of disclosure: the truth is unfortunately that I am genetically 25% pitch fork.

Thrilling Physics

This summer we got the family season passes to Dollywood, the current incarnation of a theme park that has been around for longer than I have. When I was a young child it was called Goldrush Junction, and then in 1977 it was changed again to Silver Dollar City. In 1986 it became Dollywood and has since grown in size and significance as a theme park. (click link above for more detailed history)

In 1978 Silver Dollar City opened a roller coaster called The Blazing Fury. I was one of the very first riders and received a badge proclaiming "I survived the Blazing Fury." My dad knew the promotions director for the park and got us season passes so we got to go on opening day and ride the new ride when it opened.


I knew I would be glad I saved this thing after all these years. ;-) You can sort of see where I scratched in my then initials, RAH.

In recent years Dollywood has added some very high quality roller coasters. I hadn't been to Dollywood in many years due to having babies and children too young to really enjoy the experience. But this year we decided to get season passes since our youngest is now big enough to ride all the rides there. His favorite is Thunderhead, an impossible-looking (click for series of photos showing the odd angles and turns) wooden coaster that is a few years old.



Most wooden coasters don't look like this one. It's kind of insane that people have been able to manipulate the laws of physics to create this coaster that looks like it shouldn't even remain standing let alone hold a train full of people traveling at 55 mph.


click for more photos from site this one is from

I like the Thunderhead, but my very most favorite ride is Dollywood's newest, opened this year, called Mystery Mine.



It is absolutely maniacal! There are two totally vertical lifts, the second and tallest plummeting 85 feet at a 95 degree angle. That's practically straight down. Insane! And totally thrilling.


construction photo of the vertical drop

Click here to listen to the queue line music that is perfectly creepy to set the mood. This ride is so good that I could ride it all day long. Well, almost, anyway. ;-)

I may not be able to understand the physics (and engineering) that make these rides possible, but I sure do feel and very much appreciate the thrilling results. ;-)

Jelly Day

Blackberry juice looks kind of like blood when it's draining from the strainer into a bowl. And the large quart jars are full of the thick, somewhat viscous juice too.

It's not an accidental or an artificial coincidence that I made jelly on almost the same date last year. It is just the way it has worked out. Despite a very late freeze this Spring and a drought this Summer the blackberries came as they normally would. This is because most life on this part of the Earth is well-adapted to big variations in conditions from year to year (and even from day to day because it was 20 degrees cooler today than it was on Monday). No year is ever the same as the last.

Also the big, late Spring freeze killed all the newly emerged leaves on the trees and shrubs like the blackberry canes. Did that spell disaster for the them? No, they sprouted new leaves within weeks. The trees and shrubs "knew" to do this because they have adapted to changes over many millennia and have retained the "knowledge" to replace frozen leaves. Life is resilient that way.

And actually, my blackberry yield has been even greater than last year's despite the bad weather. (But in all fairness several people have marveled at my yield because their own blackberry patches haven't done as well this year. Maybe I have magical powers? ;-) ) Last year by this time I got enough juice to make 14 cups of jelly, but this year I've made 20 cups. There are still berries ripening, and I'll probably pick a few more for pies. But I think I have enough jelly now. ;-)


I think I'll label these "Vicious Momma's Intense Blackberry Jelly" because it is that good. ;-)

I love the sound of lids popping and pinging to let me know the vacuum seal worked. As the jelly-filled jars cool from their boiling water bath in the canner, the change in temperature causes a suction to pull down the lid for an airtight seal. Pop, ping, pop, ping! Music to my ears. :-)

Hey, maybe I should get some kind of carbon tax credit for making my own jelly. No illegals were hired to pick and process the berries. I didn't even have to drive to get them. The jars are reused from last year. I wonder what the total economic cost of twenty cups of store-bought jelly is compared to twenty cups of homemade. Someone should do those calculations and lobby for a new tax credit for homemakers. ;-)

Which brings me to an opportunity to use some pictures I've had a while and wanted to put up here at some point. Back in the WWII era people were asked to do many things to help their country get through the Depression and the War hardships. One of those things was planting a "Victory Garden." Unfortunately, Al Gore might read this and decide to make it one of the sacraments of his Global Warming Religion. ;-)




For instructions on juicing berries see last year's jelly post.

Broken-Hearted Savior

Yeah... Out on the back street,
Taking love where I can,
I found a sweet madonna
Ooo with a bible in her hand.
She's waiting,
Anticipating well,
For someone to save her soul;
Well I ain't no new messiah,
But I'm close enough for rock and roll

"Rockin' Into the Night" by 38 Special

Rock and Roll Fantasy

Sometimes I have Messianic delusions (a variety of delusions of grandeur and persecution), but then it always gets to the part when I'm supposed to suffer and die. And I change my mind. Well, can you blame me? Nobody likes true pain, the kind inflicted upon us by others. (Masochists don't count.)

Most of us will pain ourselves with various things at times, like worrying over silly things, or sometimes serious things too. But that kind of pain is really just an illusion because we have ultimate control over it. We can stop thinking about whatever and the pain subsides. We can't and don't have ultimate control over external forces though.

Most saviors have to suffer on the behalf of others because the very nature of saving is dangerous. Why do some of us willingly suffer for others? I'll get to that in a minute.

Even Jesus bemoaned his fate because the physical and emotional pain really hurt:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Matthew 27:46 (KJV)

It is a totally natural reponse to avoid pain. And to complain when we feel it. But pain is a very normal and basic experience, and often unavoidable. So what makes that pain bearable? Well, some people call on God to give them strength, but for those who object to God we can call it Love. God is Love.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:7-8 (New American Standard)

Love is Divine. How else could such a thing exist than by the hand of God? And if it's purely "chemical processes" in our bodies and brains that result in this feeling and knowing of love then why can't that be considered evidence for God? How can one prove love to someone who's never felt it? Some people spend entire lifetimes trying to prove their love to one person. Why must that mean that love isn't real, just because the one person has never felt it or refuses to see it? Why must it mean that God doesn't exist if no one can prove it? Can anyone disprove love? Likewise, can anyone truly disprove God? Well, if they have I sure haven't heard about it and you'd think that would be pretty big news. ;-)

And if God (and Love) are delusions, as Richard Dawkins proclaims, then they're pretty f*cking awesome delusions and that's why they survive. :-) I'm sure Dawkins is a nice enough guy, but his focus on the bad aspects of human-created, imperfect religions is very similar to the cherry-picking of evidence that the global warming alarmists do to support their ideas. I'm sure if someone wanted to take the time and energy, he could write a book about all the evil done in the name of Science and it would equal if not exceed that done in the name of religion.

Thorns In My Fingers

This post's title comes from a song I heard the other night. I'd been thinking about this post for a while and thought that was an appropriate title.

And now, even later, I've thought of Thorns in My Fingers because I literally have some broken-off blackberry thorns in my fingers. They do hurt. What does this have to do with love?

Oh, yeah, Love Hurts too. Like being a savior and having blackberry thorns in your fingers - or a thorn in your side, whatever works for you. ;-) All of this is related. I endure the pain of picking blackberries because of love. Blackberries need blood (no, I can't scientifically support that statement, but as a 'shaman' I know it), and it's right and proper to offer them a little in exchange for their nice berries. And also I know my family enjoys the berries, and I am willing to suffer a little to make them things that they enjoy. Actually, my entire life is pretty much devoted to my family which means that I've sacrificed many selfish concerns for them. But that doesn't necessarily make me their savior. I'm just the Momma.

This is kind of falling apart, but maybe I can tie some of the loose ends. Or maybe I'll just start a whole new string?

Where was I anyway? Broken-hearted saviors. Yeah. Why are saviors broken-hearted? Well, they are broken-hearted because they know that their sacrifice will not really matter all that much to everyone, especially not to those who refuse to acknowlege the Divine Forces. All of their pain and suffering will largely go unnoticed and unappreciated and even criticized and scorned by the unfaithful. They are also broken-hearted because it's only through a broken heart that Love can really do its work.

Viruses of the Soul

Dawkins calls religion "viruses of the mind." The viruses of the soul are hubris, greed, and other purely human traits that separate us from God/Love. The war on religion and God that so many militant atheists are trying to fight is nothing less than an attack on the Freedom of Thought which is the root of our First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech and Religion. It's terribly unfortunate that 'distinguished' scholars can't or won't see that, ignoring it like a (spiritual) mole that is destined to become a malignant melanoma (of the soul).

Love is God's immune response for our souls. Love can heal our pains, but also the process of healing is sometimes painful, like the hot inflammation of the skin where the body is fighting an infection or has been burned. This relationship between God and Love and pain is complex. It is a mistake for people to judge God because of the pain in the world. That is like judging Nature by viruses and other predators. It's all necessary and natural.

From the broken-hearted savior maybe someone can learn that God is no more a delusion than Love or the Space that scientists still don't quite understand.

And that is today's sermonette.


Previous post on very similar subject.

7-7-07

This morning we've been making all manner of fun of the "Live Earth" concert today. It's so stupid for these silly entertainers to be up there using up all kinds of electricity to run their guitars, amps, microphones, speakers, light shows, air conditioning and whatever other amenities they have backstage. They are doing this all in the name of saving the planet from a "Climate in Crisis." That is like giving out beer to stop alcoholism.

There is no crisis except for mass stupidity and hysteria over bad weather. And that they think having a bunch of electricity-sucking concerts will help anything is just the icing on the cake of hypocrisy.

The Joker

Some people call me the space cowboy
Yeah
Some call me the gangster of love

"The Joker" by Steve Miller Band

My oldest is very interested in card tricks and other illusionist/magic stuff and was opening a new pack of cards. He asked me why there were always Jokers in decks of cards. Since I don't really know much about card games I told him that it's probably because some games need them, but I don't know for sure.

In Tarot, the Fool card is somewhat related to the Joker somewhere back in their histories.


Please click picture to be able to read the meaning next to it, but "ancana" should be "arcana". Sorry for the error.

Along comes a Trickster.

About six months ago I solved the riddle of my clown phobia.

There is a basic psychological truth that says we most fear those things that reflect the parts of ourselves that we hate or reject. I'm only now, at 39 years old, beginning to accept my fate or role as the Holy Fool, Trickster, Jester, Clown.

This is probably why I was such a quiet and shy child. I refused to be the Clown or Trickster but had not yet learned how to be something else. It took me a long time to learn how to provide comic relief, at least that's how I remember it. ;-) God love her and this is not a serious criticism, but my mother seemed to be startled or puzzled by me most of the time until I became an adult. I think I interpreted her puzzlement as disapproval or some other subtle form of persuasion to subdue my "tricksterness." Well, maybe that's just a bunch of psychobabble. ;-)

Whatever the reasons, being the Joker isn't as bad as my mom or I worried it would be. Maybe it's because being a gangster of love is pretty fun. ;-)

Previous mention of the Trickster

Electric Hoe

Black and Decker has made a cordless electric hoe (cultivator).

I suppose now all of us old-fashioned types are really becoming obsolete. Well, lately it appears to be a real trend since my husband also seems to wish I was newer and more electrically charged. Maybe I should buy him this vibrating hoe for his birthday in a few days. ;-)

Busy, busy, busy

Although it might be good news for some, I really haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've just been very summer busy with the kids and so on. Been picking lots and lots of blackberries and juicing them for jelly. Started painting the dining room, but I'm not sure I like the color though I have a fix for that. I've been piddling with a new sermonette that I hope to finish this week. As usually happens in the summer I'm the go-to woman for child care and am providing free babysitting to various kids for various amounts of time. This really isn't a problem. I consider it a form of volunteerism. ;-) It's very hot and dry here so keeping the gardens and plants watered is a job too. I'm very much enjoying home and home-centered activities these days. I hope everyone else is having a good summer so far.

Very Cute Car

Photo from Business Week.

I've been seeing these incredibly cute little roadsters lately and was very surprised to learn that they are made by Saturn. They are the Saturn SKY. Well, actually, the really cute ones are the Red Line series.



I have to say it's about 89% as cute as my Corvette. Maybe that's because it looks a little to me like baby Corvette. ;-)

It has an Ecotec engine and is supposed to be pretty peppy, but from the information on the webpages it doesn't outperform a Corvette in either fuel efficiency or power (260 hp vs. 345 hp). And even though a new SKY is about half the price of a new Corvette, I'm not about to go trade my vette for a SKY. But dang, they sure are cute little head-turners. And I'm not usually so easily impressed with new cars anymore.

Well, kudos to General Motors. Some American cars are still pretty cool.