Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

Our Future Is In The Balance...

 

American Democracy has been considered

an experiment from its earliest days

and has been observed for over 200 years

to see if self-governance actually works.

 

America has faltered many many times yet she still stands.

The way that we participate in the experiment is up to us.

 

Voting is the most crucial and significant thing that we as Americans

can do to participate in this "grand" experiment.

 

Voting can be manipulated -

by gerrymandering Congressional districts,

by turning people away at the polls,

by intimidating people into not voting at all.

Ballots can be stolen, "misplaced" or rejected for some trumped up reason.

 

It is usually the minority party which is invested in suppressing the vote,

one way or the other.

Once they have power, they will do anything to keep it.

 

Whatever the tactics, it is imperative

that every eligible voter casts their vote

no matter how or who discourages us to do so.

VOTE.

The future is in the balance.

The future of our Earth, our food, our water,

healthcare, Social Security, racial justice.

It is all on the line.

 

Talk to your friends, your family - be sure that they plan to vote.

Our Future is in the balance.

 

 

 

 

VOTE!

 

 

Black Lives Matter

 

Yes, we are unfortunately in a time

when we must assert

loud and clear -

that

Black Lives Do Matter.

 

Yet all true spiritual and religious traditions

and scientific facts

proclaim for all to hear

that

We are all one

and

one with all.

 

 

Sure, we are all different colors -

but we are the same race.

In fact there is only the one race -

the human race.

 

All other differentiations are fairy tales -

they are not real or true.

 

Black families have taken a beating for hundreds of years

and it is time for all of us

to stand with all oppressed people and say -

NO MORE!

 

 

 

 

 

©Laine Quinn 2020 Mexican art photographed without giving credit to the artist, sorry.

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.

 

 

 

Stardust

 

 

In the past I was in the habit of visiting the Astronomy Picture of the Day

each night before I shut off my computer for some wonderfulness to end the day.

This was posted on March 6th, 2014 and I find it astonishing!

 

APOD -

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

The Writer Spider

 

 

Sometimes numbers are difficult to wrap your mind around.

The banana spider, or golden orb spider, or writer spider,

is the oldest surviving spider on earth.

To the tune of 165 million years!

That's a really really long time.

 

Compare that to humans and our nearest ancestors, the chimpanzee,

and we clock in at 5 million years.

That's really a long time too!

 

Humans reached anatomical modernity 200,000 years ago,

and behavioral modernity 50,000 years ago.

 

Ok, 50,000 years to get behavior right...

 

Are we still babes in the woods?

(Compared to the banana spider, yes!)

Not that everyone I know isn't kind and gentle, they are.

 

It's the way our governments behave that is worrisome.

 

Maybe soon, say in another 50,000 years, they will follow the lead of the people instead of the other way around.

 

Or am I dreaming?

 

 

 

 

 

This writer spider was found at Guana River State Park, Florida.

I Never Imagined

 

It didn't occur to me to imagine what the earth looked like during the eclipse the other day.

 

 

Shot from the International Space Station, this photograph was my favorite

in the APOD's (Astronomy Picture of the Day) gallery of Eclipse photos. 

 

A really different perspective!

 

 

 

 

 

"Eclipse from Orbit"

Credit: Don Petit, NASA

 

So close...

 

Whichever way the wind blows,

that's how I go.

 

Some days I'm sailing the high seas, up and down with the swells.

Other times it's calm and there's moonlight and stars that you wouldn't believe!

 

Today I am on a beach,

and a walking whale is pointing something at me.

 

This might be my last day, 

here on this beach,

as the ocean is so close, yet so far away.

 

 

Portuguese Man of War, stranded on St. Augustine beach...careful...(about the size of my foot, the largest one I've ever seen.)

 

Hammock Mate

 

Sitting in the hammock isn't usually considered hazardous duty,

but there is no reason to take needless chances.

So, out comes the camera and off you go onto the nearest branch.

Oh, you don't like that one? Then the second choice - go!

(Must be related to cats.)

(Might be going to a beach fire, and bringing the marshmallows.)

 

No, she hasn't got a name!

 

 

Beautiful hammock found at Southern Lights Candle Shop in St. Augustine, Florida.

Dream BIG!

 

Let's never forget that we are a nation that can dream BIG,

and make those dreams come true.

 

What are your dreams for our America?

 

 

The last launch of the Space Shuttle, Discovery, seen from St. Augustine Beach on February 24th, 2011. 

The Atmosphere is Our Spacesuit

 

 

Perhaps this little sphere has fallen out of some distant orbit and plopped into the ocean

where it washed ashore with the tide, picking up a few hitchhikers along the way.

Insignificant from a block away, it becomes a fascinating object to scavengers on the beach.

 

If the sun had eyes would it ever be able to see the little planet that we live on from so far away?

Earth would be such a tiny thing that it wouldn't even look like a speck of dust among the billions of stars in our galaxy.

Yet the sun provides us with life as we know it - everything depends on its energy and heat.

Is it any wonder that the early humans worshipped our very own star?

Did the sun notice or feel the gratitude?

 

Our astronauts came back from space with the unique vision and understanding that the earth is like a large spacecraft,

orbiting the sun, and that care needed to be taken to sustain the supply of air and water necessary for survival.

The atmosphere is, after all, our spacesuit!

 

 

 

Points of reference:

The little planet in the first photo was about the size of a golf ball.

The average distance between the sun and the earth is 92,935,700 miles, also known as one astronomical unit.

Light travels that distance in 8 1/2 minutes.

 

Power!

 

 

Power, pressure, heat, steam...all coming from the earth.

A generous gift of energy, warmth and light to Icelanders.

 

Where does your power come from?

Your real power?

 

Two books out of the library simultaneously...

The Art of Power, by Thich Nhat Hanh and

The Power of Art, by Simon Schama.

 

Never finished either one, but would like to one day!

 

 

Thanks Steve!

 

 

Inside the iMac G5

 

A small tribute to Steve Jobs for creating an amazing line

of reliable and elegant playthings for the rest of us

to enjoy and marvel over.

 

Here's to the beautiful thought that your trip

through time and space is only just begining.

 

In gratitude and awe,

Laine