Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

Social Distancing...

 

 

Social distancing not required...

 

 

 

 

Cat (DJ) and Armadillo, the Moon and Venus, Two Butterflies, Cat (Lucy) kisses Gator, Two Web-footed friends, Five Turtles! All Safe.

Really Good Friends...

 

Often I catch myself sitting with my hands folded,

like a good school girl at her desk.

 

 

As a child I always loved this painting of "Praying Hands" by Albrecht Durer

 

 

Hands -

one hand washing the other -

like old friends.

 

Like how we help each other now -

keeping our distance, but checking in on friends and family.

 

 

 

Our hands,

are like good friends -

really good friends!

 

 

 

 

 

"Praying Hands" by Albrecht Durer.

Necklace in Mexico, and Door Hand also! ©2017 Laine Quinn

 

 

Red!

 

 

 

SPRING!

Ignoring world events -

has sprung!

 

 

 

 

Red Hibiscus, coming through the slats.

©2020 Laine Quinn

 

Pink!

 

 

Where beauty is -

there rests the soul.

 

 

 

 

Azaleas in full force in St. Augustine.

 

 

Be Careful...

 

 

It is difficult to sit still for an invisible catastrophe -

there's no wind, no rain, no flooding -

in fact the weather here is perfect.

 

We have electricity, water, internet, the pantry is full,

and we have each other.

 

So, wash your hands, enjoy each other -

(they are singing from the balconies in Italy!)

get lots of fresh air

and be creative!

 

Don't panic.

Be kind.

and

Be careful.

 

 

Trumpet Flower, ©Laine Quinn 2007!

 

Glory Enough...

 

 

In her autobiography, Dust Tracks On A Road,

Zora Neale Hurston, with no disrespect to organized Religion,

states that-

 

"It is simply not for me...

The springing of the yellow line of morning out of the misty deep of dawn,

is glory enough for me."

 

 

 

Amen!

Photo, Crescent Beach, © Laine Quinn 2018, sunrise.

 

Poets...

 

 

Ecola

 

I walked by the sea-creek side.

The wind laughed, the gulls cried.

Sweet water lapped on the salt sand

between the deep sea and the deep land.

                                                Ursula K. LeGuin

 

Years ago, Joseph Campbell told us that the poets would save us.

 

I begin to understand.

 

 

 

From Ursula K LeGuin's book of poems, "Late in the Day."

Joseph Campbell, in his series, "The Power of Myth."

Photo of St. Augustine Beach, ©2020LaineQuinn

 

 

Our Better Angels...

 

It might seem incredulous

that there were peaceful, cooperative, undefended cities in so called prehistory.

But go back as recently as 1492, when Columbus sailed across the Atlantic

in search of a route to China and India.

Luckily for him and his crew,

there was land in between,

and after nearly 3 months of sailing,

they landed in what he named Hispaniola, in the Bahamas.

 

*"The Indians," Columbus reported,

"are so naive and so free with their possessions

that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it.

When you ask for something they have, they never say no.

To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone."

 

How he and his men responded to these handsome, well built people

who carried no weapons,

is shameful and obscene.

 

And thus began the conquest of the Americas,

spreading the European model of power and tyranny like a disease.

 

We are the descendants of these warring people

who believed in a winner take all mentality.

 

We are also the descendants of the peaceful, generous people,

who loved nature and life.

 

We can set our sights on making more and more powerful and accurate weapons.

 

Or we can set our sights on technologies that support life

and can turn back the clock on certain environmental collapse.

 

Love will get us there and respect -

for each other and for the world we live in.

 

Let's let our better angels have their day once again.

 

 

 

*From Howard Zinn's, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492 - PRESENT.

 

 

A Mistake...

 

When you have peaceful, cooperative cities

that are unfortified:

no walls or fortresses -

that have not developed weapons of death:

there was no need for those things,

as their neighbors were friendly -

and violent warring tribes from the surrounding arid lands

invade and destroy everything in their path,

installing their vengeful, jealous gods to displace the nurturing goddess -

things change.

 

And they change dramatically and violently and relatively quickly.

1,000 or 2,000 years to undo 30,000 years

of human development.

 

In her book, The Chalice and the Blade,

Eisler makes the case that patriarchy and its elevation

of war and fear and power over others

is an anomaly,

a blip on the evolutionary screen.

 

The Pale Blue Dot

View from Voyager, Earth as seen from deep space. NASA

 

It's a detour off the path of human development.

 

A mistake that needs correction.

That must be corrected.

 

 

 

Photo of the Earth from deep space. APOD "ThePaleBlueDot"

Astronomy Picture of the Day, February 14th 2020.

 

 

Everyone is King of the Hill...

 

"Our hopes for peaceful human coexistence are not,

as we are so often told, utopian dreams."

                                                                           Riane Eisler

 

Peaceful cooperation existed long, long ago and set the foundation for civilization.

 

Human HISTORY OURSTORY goes back 30,000 years.

In most early societies technologies were developed

that supported and enhanced

the quality of life.

Otherwise what might have become of us?

 

These were cooperative societies,

with both men and women working together for the common good.

30,000 years of improving life for all.

Over millennia, these early societies developed farming,

fishing, the domestication of animals,

weaving, and even town planning.

 

The arts flourished.

 

As a result of that cooperative living,

10,000 years ago - thriving, complex city states were abundant in the fertile Mediterranean Basin.

 

Yes, these were "gynocentric, or woman-centered societies,

with the deity represented in female form,

symbolizing the generative, nurturing and creative powers of nature."

These peoples, our ancestors, lived close to nature and the stars

and had great respect for all life.

 

Was it a matriarchy? Not in the sense of being opposite to patriarchy.

These were egalitarian cultures that bestowed equal value on all citizens.

 

 "A partnership society,

in which neither half of humanity is ranked over the other

and diversity is not equated with inferiority or superiority."

 

Everyone is King of the Hill!

(Queen, Princess, Prince and Spot!)

Of the Hill!

 

 

 

 

Quotes are from the amazing book, The Chalice and the Blade, Our History, Our Future, extensively researched and written by Riane Eisler in 1987.

 

 

Obscene...

 

The word obscene in Greek Tragedies meant that the action took place off scene,

behind the curtain, because it was too terrible to actually depict on stage.

 

I've gone back 100 years to shake up the past and improve our lives.

Going back farther one is confronted with obscene brutality.

 

Imperialism - the way of the world -

an arrogance and entitlement that justified horrible acts of murder,

slavery and abuse on all levels.

Anyone perceived as different, inferior, or threatening,

and women and children of all stripes were dispatched or used with impunity.

 

 

Four thousand years of that arrogance landed in the Americas.

Spanish, French and English fought fiercely for the rights of a land already occupied.

And finally, the newly minted Americans were the victors,

and ran over the continent and her people without conscience.

 

King of the Hill...

whoever gets to the top makes the rules and breaks the rules and changes the rules.

They tell the story, HISstory,

not OURstory.

 

We still live under this archaic model

of might makes right

and the person with the most gold is King.

 

But, it was not always this way.

There is an older way.

A Peaceful way.

Long, long ago...

 

 

More tomorrow...

Re-enactor, St. Augustine.

 

Revolution?

 

 

...It''s about my journey going from a liberal civil  rights lawyer

who was tinkering with the machine,

and believed that we could somehow get the to the Promised Land

if we just filed the next best lawsuit,

or met the the governor,

or organize the right number of people for the next protest,

to someone who now believes that much more revolutionary change is required,

and it's not simply a political revolution.

 

A moral and spiritual revolution is also required of us now.

 

                                                                                          *Michelle Alexander

 

This is what is required of us to begin to treat each person decently,

with respect and love

and by extension,

the earth and all aboard her.

 

 

 

 

*(Author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness",

talking about her new book.)

 

 

Photo of Tropical Day Flower and Dragonfly, ©2013 Laine Quinn

Taken at Longwood Gardens, in Delaware.

 

So, Imagine This...

 

So,

in my alternate universe...

There was no degradation of the earth.

Clean Air.

Clean Water.

No lies, no wars in the oil rich Middle East, no lives lost.

The U.S. military would be doing what it is charged with-

protecting Democracy,

not dismantling it worldwide.

Cancer would still be a rare disease,

not the Big Business that it is today.

 

Our Government by the people, and for the people would stand by the people,

and not the greedy aggressive corporations that have given us this dystopia.

 

Family Farms would have been protected,

and the Giant Agri-Business would never have been allowed.

Our food would be wholesome and delicious-

the soil rich in nutrients-

bees would thrive.

 

And the peacemakers never would have been assassinated,

and they would have led the way to peace and prosperity for all people.

 

"You might say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one."

                                                        John Lennon

 

 

©2020 Laine Quinn, Earth Flag, Home!

John Lennon Quote from the song "Imagine"

Nature's Heart...

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

There Is Hope...

 

There is an interview with the Four Women of "The Squad" on Democracy Now.

After reading the transcript of these four diverse women,

at a time when I was getting very disheartened about the state of the country and the world,

I found HOPE!

 

They are, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York,

Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts,

Rashida Tlaib of Michigan

and

Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

These women are on the front lines and they are passionate and positive

and Hopeful!

 

 

So, whatever you do, don't lose Hope.

Hope will get us through.

Love and compassion

and passion for the things we love -

will get us through.

 

 

 

©2020 Laine Quinn, Wild Waves

The Hungry Caterpillar...

 

 

While burning a few things on the deck in the chiminnea,

I noticed these caterpillars munching away on the Butterfly Weed.

It was over a month ago. There were about 10 or 12 of them, and they decimated that plant.

 

 

Then yesterday,

while leaning over the rail to reach a hanging pot I spied this little one in the same area.

 

She is no bigger than the joint of my thumb.

Will she emerge from her cocoon?

We will have to wait and see.

I brought her indoors, as the temperature was dropping.

 

There is so much hidden in plain sight that we never even notice.

It was chance that led me to the caterpillars and the butterfly.

 

 

Look at the little bugs on the left.

I didn't even see them until I blew the photo up!

 

 

 

 

Garden Joy! February in Florida, annuals to plant!

©2020 Laine Quinn

 

 

 

Paradise Reclaimed...

 

What if, instead of multiple networks of highways,

America was crisscrossed with lines of light rail?

And there were lovely terminals scattered everywhere,

and people could travel safely and comfortably,

south to north and east to west and back again,

in climate controlled modern rail cars?

 

Imagine the lives that wouldn't have been lost over the last 50 years to highway fatalities.

 

Wakanda!

 

The fictional city in the Black Panther movie,

where women were empowered equally to men

and developed technologies of peace.

 

A City outside of the greedy capitalist unsustainable consumer economy

that we have spread through the globe like a virus threatening our very existence.

 

A fictional utopia?

Yes.

 

But we are living in a real dystopia,

one that with a few different choices would improve exponentially.

 

This Earth really is a Paradise that we need to reclaim.

 

 

 

 

 

What if...

 

HELP!

 

What if, when chemical companies came up with the idea

to spray food crops with the deadly compounds

that were developed in wartime,

someone very important had said,

 

"This is a really bad idea."

 

OR

 

What if, 20 or 30 years later, when a bright caring poet/scientist

saw the effects of these deadly poisons first hand

and sounded the alarm, that birds were dying, bees and butterflies too.

And the chemical big wigs had said,

 

"Oh my, this is not what we had intended.

We can do better than this."

 

If either one of those things had happened,

we would have vegetables and fruits

that actually tasted like something, instead of tasting like nothing.

And the bees and butterflies wouldn't be on the edge of extinction.

 

The Earth would be healthier and her people and their children.

 

 

 

 

Silent Spring was published in 1962, by Rachel Carson who died of breast cancer 2 years later, in 1964.

"Though much is taken, much remains and much returns." John Elder quoting Wordsworth with an addition, in Courage for the Earth, Celebrating the life and writings of Rachel Carson.

Things we can do...feed the birds, and plant flowers that attract bees and butterflies and grow our own veggies!!!!  And buy organic when we can afford to.

 

 

 

Drowning in Plastic...

 

When you bought groceries in the '50's and early 60's,

they were packed in sturdy paper bags.

These bags were then used as trash bags that,

when full, were taken outside to metal trash cans.

(I can still hear the sound of the metal cans on trash day!)

 

Milk and soda came in returnable glass bottles that never made their way to the trash

because you could get money for returning them!

 

There was no plastic.

No Styrofoam.

Until there was.

 

And now the earth is drowning in plastic.

In those short 50 or so years,

drowning in plastic.

 

So...

Paper grocery bags?

Insist on it.

Cloth?

Even better.

Paper trash bags?

Why not?

Be creative -

small steps for mankind and womankind and children kind.

 

The Earth will survive human recklessness,

but humans won't.

 

 

Paper is a renewable resource, and with the return of the versatile Hemp plant, there is even more reason to have faith in paper.

 

Soul Ecology...

 

 

"...a soulful ecology is rooted in the feeling that this world is our home

and that our responsibility to it comes not from obligation

or logic, but from true affection.

 

...As long as the heart is involved, care of the place will follow."

                                                              Thomas Moore, Care of The Soul

 

 

The thing to understand is that this in not your fault or my fault

because we didn't recycle enough or we use too much plastic,

or we believed that Round Up was safe.

 

The problem is institutionalized.

From the auto industry to plastics manufacturing,

oil producers have held sway over these industries for a century.

Chemical companies have been spreading their propaganda since WWII.

And governments have been holding their hands ever since

and silencing concerned voices.

 

There are little things that we can do in our lives and homes.

And lots of little things add up.

More later!

 

 

 

Home sweet Home! The cat, the hammock, and the flowers are still with me in my new home!

 

 

Step 2 is Kindness...

 

"If kindness takes a little longer,

it's worth the extra time."

                                   Eleanor McEvoy

 

When we develop kindness towards ourselves,

we can change the atmosphere of our days and lives;

the atmosphere of our homes and work environments,

and our relationships.

 

Kindness, first for ourselves.

All love and peace radiate from our tender hearts.

 

 

They say we have ten years, it might be less, to get this right, to turn around the dire need that the earth is in.

 

If we wake up everyday with a kind heart and gentleness towards ourselves,

then we can appreciate the beauty that is all around us.

 

This appreciation for life can carry us to the finish line,

one day at a time.

 

 

The kindness quote is from a song by Eleanor McEvoy. I recommend the book "Loving Kindness" by Sharon Salzberg for some kind inspiration.

Flagler Beach pier love notes, ©Laine Quinn

 

 

 

 

This is Dedicated to...

 

 

Whenever I see a line of pelicans coming along the beach, over the waves,

their wingtips just grazing the water, I get a little bit jealous of how simple

their life appears to be.

 

It seems that the creatures of this world are better at meeting their daily needs

than the oh so intelligent higher mammals who actually destroy or poison

the very things that support them.

 

From now on, my blog is dedicated to our home planet,

the lifeboat that we - all of us - are sailing on through space.

I am joining the chorus of concerned citizens of Mother Earth

to do my small part to alleviate the pressure of too many years

of human recklessness that has threatened our time here.

 

 

My first step is appreciation, and gratitude for the beautiful world we still live in.

The wonderful old oak trees in my neighborhood, and just last week, the hungry caterpillar on the butterfly weed,

and of course the beaches and all the life bursting there, the birds and fishes and dolphins.

 

A heartfelt appreciation and gratitude.

 

Bowing in humility before the multiplicity of life, here on planet Earth.

 

 

 

Brown Pelicans doing what they do as they surf along the waves at St. Augustine Beach.

©LaineQuinn 2020

One of These Days...

 

I'm going to learn to fish!

 

 

Not like the patient and swift Egret, or the people who go out to sea,

no matter the weather.

No, more like the folks standing on the shore patiently casting and reeling in.

 

 

 

But, I never could stomach putting a live worm on a hook

or removing the hook from a struggling fish,

and the thought of killing a living thing - sure a mosquito- but a beautiful fish?

 

No, better that I plant some winter greens and then harvest from the earth in my own backyard.

 

Yes, that sounds more probable.

Yes.

 

 

 

Fishers, at the inlet. © Laine Quinn 2019

Good-bye 2019!

 

Grateful...

 

From the book of poems, BLUE HORSES by Mary Oliver

 

...Bless the words with which I try to say

what I see, think, or feel.

With gratitude for the grace of the earth.

The expected and the exception, both.

For all the hours I have been given to

be in this world.

 

The multiplicity of forms! The hummingbird,

the fox, the raven, the sparrow hawk, the

otter, the dragonfly, the water lily! And

on and on. It must be a great disappointment

to God if we are not dazzled at least ten

times a day.

...

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

 

 

From the poem Good morning

Egret at the inlet taking flight! ©2019 Laine Quinn

 

The Long Journey Begins

 

Just before the Hurricane,

this little one emerges.

She's on her way to the turbulent waves.

 

We on the shore want so badly to help,

but we know better and walk beside her,

well meaning, helpless, guardians,

until a wave envelopes her -

back and forth

and she is gone

on her long journey

to everywhere.

 

 

 

Baby Turtle, September 1, 2019. The lifeguards assured me that she would make it!

© Laine Quinn 2019

Let Them Go to Mars...

 

 

The American Experiment has never lived up to its promise

of self-government and Liberty and Justice for All.

From the start it was non-inclusive, predatory and rigged

in favor of the "ruling class", the so called "people".

But this doesn't mean that a course correction wouldn't change things for the better.

 

America, (which has never been great, truth be told) can be good.

The promise is there and the vision is there and the American People

are good people.

Corporations are not people and have not been good for the people for some time.

Greed is not pretty, not for Americans or for the planet.

 

Have we reached the pinnacle of American Greed?

Let them go to Mars.

Let's stay here and take care of our own beautiful ailing planet.

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the political post, it has been brewing for awhile.

©2019 Laine Quinn Flag at the Oldest Wooden School House in St. Augustine Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections...

 

 

A serene scene for anxious times...

Mother Nature hasn't given up on us yet.

 

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach, 9.11.19 ©Laine Quinn

What we can do to support the climate strike on Friday, the 20th of September-

Don't buy anything on line that has to be delivered to your home, buy local.

Don't throw away any plastic at all for that day.

Drive as little as possible.

Be kind!

 

 

Forever Learning...

 

Whatever the outcome of a great love,

whatever the duration, it is still a triumph

and a transformation to be celebrated.

                               Edward Carpenter

 

 

There is a saying that, "Youth is wasted on the young."

But how could we survive our youth if we weren't physically young

and emotionally naive?

 

Believing that we should know what the hell we are doing, and fumbling along

and feeling embarrassed and ashamed because we messed up, is so unfair and misses the point.

 

Life is for learning about love and life.

Not about acting like we already know.

Knowing is not possible without living and making a mess and moving on to do better.

 

The better saying is, "You have to break a few eggs in order to make an omelette."

 

So, whatever our age, from teens to 70 year olds, we are still young in so many ways and

compassion and kindness should be the order of the day,

first for ourselves, and then for the others we meet.

 

Then, when we err, we will know it and be aware of how to be-do better.

 

 

 

Quote found on Maria Papova's writings "BrainPickings".

©Laine Quinn, 2019

 

 

 

 

The Nursery...

 

 

The seed factory in a Sago Palm brings to mind part of a quote from Kahlil Gibran,

...life's longing for itself.

 

Isn't that how this gorgeous planet evolved,

one seedling at a time?

 

 

 

 

© 2019 Laine Quinn Sago Drama!

 

The Sea Oats

 

The sea oats are green again,

beginning their cycle from spring to fall to winter...

 

 

Living in Florida, it's easy to forget what season it is,

but there are ways of being reminded,

and the sea oats jarred me out of late summer to early summer,

right where we are!

 

 

 

Shooting with my phone, I couldn't see the screen and only hoped that I had gotten the line of pelicans in the shot!

©2019, Laine Quinn St. Augustine Beach