It is Christmas day if you are a Christian. (I am not so it is less significant for me). If you listen to all the talking heads on TV it is a time for goodwill and caring. Why only now at this time? Should we not be caring and have goodwill to others, all living creatures, the earth and all about us all the time. I suppose this is a reflection of the superficiality of life in our 'modern' times.

We went to see the final installment of the Lord of the Rings on Tuesday evening. This is just a fictional story, but one with a great message: truth, honesty and genuine enduring friendship is what life is all about. Power and wealth is nothing and can be lost in an instant, but pure friendship is till death and beyond.

It is a hapless dream that humanity could live in peace with one another and at peace with the earth, not exploiting each other or the earth, but living with mutual respect, trust and caring. Hapless it may be, but achieving it in little bits, wherever possible, makes this life better and worth living.

Quoting today's New York Times:

"Administration Is Exempting Alaska Forest From Protection
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Published: December 24, 2003


WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 2004.

The Bush administration announced on Tuesday that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest in the country, would be exempted from a Clinton-era rule, potentially opening up more than half of the 17 million-acre forest for more development and as many as 50 logging projects.

The decision stems from the settlement of a lawsuit between Alaska and the federal government over the so-called roadless rule, which prohibited the building of roads in 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest across the country.

Environmental groups attacked the administration for the settlement in July, saying it was an underhanded strategy for circumventing the regulation. Conservation groups said the administration had failed to defend the roadless designation adequately. "

Once again the environment must pay the price for the greed of the few. Our future must once again be sacrificed for the wealth of a handful. Sure logging provides work for a small number of folks that desperately need the work, but the ones that really profit from this onslaught of the earth sit in fine homes of exclusive country clubs, counting their dollars, not giving a damn about the destruction and rape of the land. Once again shame on you Mr. Bush. You once again show where your allegiance lies, with your bank account.

The Howard Dean campaign sent out a call for help last week. Not for himself, but for our troops. Those brave folks that are selflessly sacrificing everything for us to be able to keep living in a free society. You would think that the government, and especially the current administration that is so bent on going to war would take good care of these special folks, but no they do not.

The help being asked for is for citizens to send care packages to a clearing station so that they can be delivered under the new rules to various soldiers in the field of battle (and those back here at home that are also struggling).

That we are being asked to send care packages is not new or unusual. This is a practice that goes back in history. Folks have done this for their troops for centuries. What is unusual here is that Americans are being asked to send some of the most basic essentials to our troops. Not cookies and chocolate. No basics for daily living and doing the job they were sent there to do. Hot breakfast, soap, toothpaste and other basics. Gloves, flashlights, handcuffs. One would expect that the government would provide the tools of the trade. Donate your airmiles so that a soldier coming home to visit their family can actual get home and not be stranded at one of the 4 major hubs the military takes them to.

This is an outrage. But we should not be surprised. The administration does not actually care for these citizens that are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. They are only concerned about their agenda at it appears to very personal. Make more money for ourselves and our little inner circle of super wealthy. Oil and cash is the name of the game. The rhetoric about WMD and terrorism rings hollow and halfhearted in the face of Halliburton greedily sucking our tax dollars into their coffers, while soldiers are being picked off by snipers and suicide bombers everyday. Besides its greed, this administration is also guilty of the utmost cynicism. Shame on you.

So Florida strikes again. (What a surprise)! Some genius has suggested that we separate passengers from their luggage when we fly, sending the luggage via a cargo flight, FedEx, UPS or some such alternative service. So that will make flying safer, maybe, but extremely inconvenient. According to genius, this will eventually reduce costs for the airlines and bring down fares. Yes, for the few flights that still occur.

Flying has become pretty painful already. Putting up with the inconvenience and hassle of sending your luggage independently, and dealing with multiple agencies to get your luggage to the right destination, even close to the time you arrive at your destination, will be even more fun. Lets do this genius. It will make flying safer for sure, since no one but the desperate will be flying.

Propaganda and PR are amazing tools that can sway the masses to think anything is great. Right now, using these tools the administration has convinced the nation that by capturing a pathetic little man who has been hiding in a hole in the ground, probably for months, has made the world a safer place. Besides being totally irrational, the gulibility of this nation still astounds me.

We went out for a celebration dinner on Saturday evening. According to all the reviews the place was great. I asked some friends who had been there what their experience had been at the place in question and they said it was great. Well is was not great. The place looked nice from a distance, but was not all that wonderful once inside. For a start it was so dark we could not read the menu without additional candles being brought to the table. The food was expensive and poor quality. I will gladly pay for quality, but not when I am being ripped off. What really spoilt the meal for me was they served tap water, not pure drinkable water with the meal. Trying to eat a nice meal with water that has enough chlorine in it to sanitize a swimming pool is rough. As usual it is the details that trip people up. The folks running this place will fail if they do not start paying attention to the details. When you move up market and expect customers to pay higher prices, the standard moves up and if you try to skimp on the details you will get caught. This place will never see me again.

Oh, by the way, if a friend asks for your opinion about a restaurant and it sucks, please be honest and tell them. They will appreciate it.

I quote from today's New York times:

"By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: December 14, 2003

INEDALE, Wyo. — A herd of 100 pronghorn antelopes were trotting over a ridge here, then meandered to a halt and foraged meditatively a few hundred yards from a natural gas wellhead and its squat companion tanks, filled with the petroleum byproducts of the drilling.

The pronghorns were stragglers in the winter migration of antelopes across the Upper Green River Valley, a landscape that has been tied to this ancient pattern for millenniums and is now being remade by the nation's thirst for clean-burning, environmentally friendly natural gas. Energy companies eager to slake that thirst while prices are high are accelerating the makeover of the longest wildlife migration route in the continental United States.

Whether this harms the wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem or affects the air or water in the Wind River Mountains is unclear. But it is clear that here in the Upper Green, as the area is called, the Bush administration's energy policies have come to life. The antelopes' migration route and the winter range of thousands of mule deer lie atop an estimated 7 trillion to 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — more than 4 percent of the nation's reserves, according to Don J. Likwartz, Wyoming's oil and gas supervisor. "

Well we may not know if it will damage the environment other than the obvious scars of drilling rigs and the mess of spilt chemicals on the ground right now, but we will pay for this rape of nature in the future. This generation may not pay, but the next generations will. (Typical Bush decision. He does not care about the future consequences of anything he does, as long as it makes him look good to his mindless following right now.)

Future generations will pay for our constant taking from nature without taking care of the ground and all that depends on it. This sucking gas and water from the earth to satisfy our unbridled needs will come back to haunt us. It is time we learned that we cannot keep taking without bound and simply to satisfy our greed. For every action there is a equal and opposite reaction. This is a basic law of physics. Well it applies more broadly in life. There are consequences for all we do and it is time for us to realize this and start taking action more carefully to make the future a better place for us all.

If you have not read a book called "A Brief history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson, I strongly recommend that you do. Besides being filled with the most amazing set of historical facts, it is well written and enjoyable to read.

Besides the many useful things I learned from this book I realized how little we actually know about anything. Despite everything we think we know about the earth, people,animals, plants etc., we actually really know only a very little about very few things in any depth. In most cases what we call knowledge is best guesses and speculation or surmising. The second big idea is that our existence, in our current form, our culture, our history and everything around us is dependent on a very delicate sequence of mutations over the span of millions of years. If any one happened at a different time or place we may not be here at all, or we may look very different, might not even be humanoid!

So what makes us think we are so superior as humans. We do not really know what animals are thinking, if they think. How do they really communicate? A mutation could occur tomorrow in a dog or a cat and survive and propagate that give that animal cognitive thought. They may already have it, we just do not know how to recognize it!

Some days you get up and just feel good. Today is such a day. Nothing has changed. I have all the same problems I had yesterday, and will probably still have them all tomorrow. That isn't the point. How you feel does not need to depend on the daily pressures. Generally few of them are under our control. Learning to control the pressure from those forces is key. Individuals cannot change many things around them. They can try to influence change over time, but until the change occurs the pressure will be there. We lived in Italy for a while and during that time we became disconnected from the world in that we did not get to hear the news everyday and did not read the news everyday since it was only available in Italian. Our conversational Italian was not good enough to keep abreast of world affairs from the small city we were living. After a few months we became very relaxed and almost carefree. A key reason was that we did not have the pressure of knowledge. Knowledge of wars, of killings, of crime n general. We did not hear about the spats between counties, or the latest ridiculous statement by some brain dead politician. All we dealt with was our daily work, the ocean, the countryside and good people, working hard to stay alive. Life can be very pleasant everyday, just chose to make it so.

There is a light rain this morning. It has been a while since we had any decent rain. The earth needs some water. We forget about these things living in the city. How delicate the balance is. The need for rain, sun, wind storms, lightning. It is all needed to keep the earth in balance and for all that lives on it to survive. Man keeps getting in the way of this balance. Keeps intruding and trying to control or change it. Sometimes man succeeds, usually with disastrous consequences. Building a big dam can kill many animals and change the local weather and climate. Nothing compares to the destruction of the atmosphere with ozone depleting gases. The earth has spent millions of years making us. In our short time we have destroyed so much usually in the name of progress. Progress means wealth for one person or a small number of people. Man has lost his true sense of value and wealth. Just leave the city limits and look around. The wealth is right there to be seen in the constructs of nature. Nature is true. The earth does not lie about anything. Only man does. Some days I am sure the earth regrets the emergence of man, that accidental mutation that set man apart from the rest of the creatures roaming the earth. What an unfortunate turn of events, creating the most destructive creature to walk the earth.

I got a cool gift this weekend. Some CD's of ealry BBC recordings of Led Zeppelin. It is very revealing to listen to them now, 30 years after they were recorded. There is no over-production. The music is heard straight and raw as it was delivered in the studio with an audience. No after processing and messing with it. It occured to me that it would be great if we could get more music delivered this way. Most recordings today are over-produced and manipulated to the point of non-recognition. The problem with delivering the music straight and unadulterated is that many so-called artists would have to find alternative carrers since they have no ability or talent and are not musicians at all, merely products of a marketing machine in LA or London or somewhere else. Live music is wonderful, but hard to carry with you and to listen to again.

Walked the dog this morning. It was pretty brisk out, but not really cold. AN early morning walk is a great way to start the day instead of sitting in an office. Most people are still asleep or just puttering about inside. On my way back some signs of life. Judging by their dress you would think it was arctic cold weather, but then this is Texas and anything below 80 is considered cold by most folks.

Talking of Texas, it seems to me that driving here is an intellectual challenge to many folks. To make it worse, when they see a sheriff or patrol car they complete loose all semblance of being able to drive and start doing the strangest things. Very odd that is. The motto here is drive for yourself and everybody around you, since they probably have no idea what they are doing or where they are going.

I just read this short piece written by Traci Robert - what a thought for today and everyday:

This country has many people of many skin colors and backgrounds who have chosen to embrace these beliefs. One of my personal beliefs is to be respectful of the Native tribes who accept their spirituality and cultural beliefs as a part of their ancestoral inheritance. There is much diversity and what a New Ager or a Naturalist believes or practices may not be the same as what a tribal group believes or practices. The real heart of embracing these beliefs is to honor and speak your own truth and to respect all life and your place in it. Remember that it is not about imitation, it is about expressing your own, individual soul.

If more of us started think this way, we could all have a better world to live in.

In my mind I am walking in the foothills of the mountains. Southern Rockies to be more specific on the eastern slopes. The air is brisk. The sky deep blue. Snow on the ground crunches as I walk. It is very quiet except for the noise of the snow under my boots. Not much is stirring, except for gentle swaying branches in the light wind. This is where I want to be, not in the hustle of the city. Dealing with people that all just want to use you to get to their goal. We have become so filled with greed for material things and false position due to our accumulated wealth. That all means nothing at the end of the day. A true friendship with someone and living in balance with the earth is much more valuable. It does not have the glitz and pazzaz. But what does that do for you? A momentary buzz. There is no lasting pleasure and joy in the glitz and superficial friendships of business and celebrity. Being one with your surroundings in a simple manner is true and lasting. If you care for the earth, it will reward you with pleasures and beauty that man cannot conceive or create, at best make futile copies.

I am convinced there must be a intelligence test they have for people in broadcasting that candidates must fail to get the job. Especially on radio, but TV is not excluded. Are there any vaguely intelligent people on the radio, especially in morning shows? I have tried several in the area and they are all pathetic. The current common threads of conversation and interest seem to be Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton. Both of these are prime examples of moral strength and example for all of us to aspire to! When these folks start to talk about anything else they get into trouble really quickly since they appear not to know much about any other topic. Their plain lack of knowledge and ability to think for themselves is boundless. Should they try to talk about any topic that strays beyond their local city limits they quickly reveal that they are totally clueless about anything. I have heard the most outrageous statements made by these folks, especially about people and countries outside the US. If you have not been to a place do not make mindless comments about. You do not know anything about the local situation , culture or history, so just plain shut up. The other characteristic I have spotted is they all seem to be venerable to ultra right wing political rhetoric. They regurgitate it mindlessly as fact and appear to believe it without question. So now I listen to public radio classical stations. Where they play long uninterrupted interludes of tolerable music with minimal talking. This latter characteristic is key. The less opportunity these folks have to talk the more tolerable the listing becomes. By the way the other group of broadcasters that appear to have a common trait of irritability are the weather reporters on TV. There must be a special training school where all these folks go to learn how to act like an idiot in front of a camera and be very arrogant about it at the same time. Where do they find these people!

The morning is cool and clear. I saw a great place to photograph on Sunday while driving. Not far so I can go back and investigate. An old farm house that is dilapidated and collapsing amongst trees and a large field. I will need permission to go onto the property, but it looks like a rich topic for photographs, especially black and white.

Driving along the back roads in central Texas can be both depressing and pleasing, but not beautiful or breathtaking. So many farms being run to the ground. People struggling to survive. The endless battle of survival, especially for those that live off the land. It has not changed in centuries, just the stakes are higher now. Farming is expensive and high risk. One major crop failure and you can be bankrupt. I am also depressed by the lack of caring for nature I see around me. We have lost the balance of living with nature, instead we exploit and take and destroy. Very few try to live in balance and harmony with nature.

Going forward this will be my daily writing place. It will be whatever I am thinking about. It may be angry, creative, happy or sad.