That's Why

 "It actually doesn't take much to be considered a difficult woman.  That's why there are so many of us."  ~Jane Goodall

The Sound Of

"In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence."  ~Robert Wilson Lynd

I haven't done it in a while, but one of my favorite things used to be take a knapsack full Peterson Field Guides out in the woods and see what I could find.

I realized pretty early on that I didn't need to go traipsing near and far, all I had to do was sit still.  In only a few minutes, the birds and insects either forgot I was there or no longer saw me as a threat, and began to reveal themselves.

1921

 

(Clicking image imbiggens)Landscape with a Sea of Fog by Franz Sedlacek (Austrian, 1891 - 1945), 1921 

I'm really surprised this is from 1921.  It looks much more recent.

Tell you what I'll do:

 "You're my woman" is one of those phrases that didn't age well, but in the context of the times it's actually a pretty sweet little song.

Jerry didn't like to perform this song live because he didn't think there were many possibilities for improvisation, but the current Dead lineup has put it back in play.

Full lyrics HERE.

Indifference

 Adapted from Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer, ©2002:

Hate is an extremely strong and harsh word. Any discussion among believers about hating other Christians would lead most of them to say, "I don't believe I have ever hated anyone." If we think about these words of John, however, perhaps he didn't mean hate as we think of it—feeling great hostility or animosity toward someone. Perhaps our form of hatred today is more like indifference. We don't really dislike people, but we don't care enough to help them when they have troubles and problems.

The Winner

The United States just passed a massive spending bill to boost the tech industry (source).

I thought the beauty of Capitalism was that the Free Market would take care of these things.  I thought that a centralized economy was a bad thing.  I must have it confused with something else.

I wonder who will reap the rewards of this investment:  the taxpayers or the stock holders?

"I believe that this legislation will enable the United States to out-innovate, out-produce, and out-compete the world in the industries of the future."  ~Chuck Schumer

"We are in a competition to win the 21st century, and the starting gun has gone off."  ~Joe Biden

Oh, let's just sit this one out. 

What I want is for everybody who's sick to be able to see a doctor, for everyone who works to be able to afford a home, for everybody who's hungry to have a sandwich.

I don't want to compete anymore.  The cost of winning is too high.

Like All Things

 "Dandelions, like all things in nature, are beautiful when you take the time to pay attention to them." ~June Stoyer

How could his eyes endure?

Plutarch (45 - 120 AD):

"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh?

"For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived.

"How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?"  

Crackerbox Palace

 

Some times are good, some times are bad;
That's all a part of life
And standing in between them all
I met a Mr. Grief, and he said:

I welcome you to Crackerbox Palace
Was not expecting you
Let's rap and tap at Crackerbox Palace
Know that the Lord is well and inside of you…

Full lyrics HERE.

Cotton Fields and Sweat Shops

 “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”  ~Stephen Jay Gould.

Criminal

“War and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous-- an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering.” - The Dalai Lama

Made

"There is no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success."  ~George Matthew Adams

The World's Biggest

Midnight

 Long before either of them became famous, Farrah Fawcett was making small talk with her friend Jim Weatherly.  She casually mentioned that she was going to go visit her parents, adding "I'm leaving on the midnight plane to Houston."

Her friend moved a few words around, and the rest is history.  (source)

Full lyrics HERE.

Al

 Singers named "Al":

• Al Jarreau
• Al Green
• Al Stewart
• Al Jolson
• Weird Al Yankovic

Other famous people named "Al":

• Al Michaels
• Al Gore
• Al Unser
• Al Sharpton
• Al Franken
• Lew Al Cindor

And, of course, that reminded me of this: