The Little Bird Knows Best.....

There are dog people and cat people. Some people think raccoons are cute and feed them others chase them away. Some people like kids while others don't. Some folks are gay and other folks straight. There are those that like money and material things, others who only need the basics. Some smoke others don't and the same for drinking alcohol. There are democrats and republicans, mean people and nice people, tall people and short people, men and women, thick and thin.

In so many ways we are different and yet we're really all the same. No matter the outward differences I think we could all agree we want and need, safety, love, security, and peace of mind. I don't think that's asking too much, or is it?

My grade school fire drills were fun. We all stood and row by row we slowly and orderly walked outside. It was a break from the boredom of reading and writing and 'rythmitic.  Out in the school yard we felt the sun on our faces, we heard chirping birds and the sounds of the traffic a few blocks away. I went to a school next to what was one of the first PBS stations in the country. I watched the building construction and I watched the large broadcast tower go up. I hated school, I did the work but I spent more time looking out the window at that broadcast tower, and the world. It was 1956 and I was 7-years-old.

The fire drills were liberating and transitory. The air raid drill were anything but. Claustrophobic in it's actions with terrifying possibilities in it's potential results, we would again line up and quietly march down to the school basement. Finding our color coded section we sat with our backs against the walls, our knees up, our legs surrounded by our arms. Cowering under the large water and steam pipes we would wait for the all-clear that would take us upstairs or the bomb blasts that would take us to oblivion. I don't need to try very hard to remember all this. I can still see that basement, I can still see those pipes, I can still see the frightened looks on the kids faces. I remember very well, I remember like it was yesterday.

Six years later, 1962, I remember looking back at the clock in my schoolroom. I was waiting for World War 3 and it was starting at noon. This was the time around the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK and Khrushchev. I well remember hearing whistling noises as I lay in bed at night, fearful it was the sound of the bomb. 

The fire drills were temporary, both in action and memory. The air raid drills left an indelible scar.

With all of our differences, and this may be very naive, why is is so damn difficult to agree to leave each other alone, to live in peace and harmony? I have been living with those terrible memories my entire life. No child should be subjected to living in fear. Oh, I guess the prevailing thought now is no one, no country, is crazy enough to start a war. I don't know that to be true. I want to think it is. 

This morning one of the first things I read on line was about North Korea.

North Korea's top governing body warned Thursday that the regime will conduct its third nuclear test in defiance of U.N. punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.

The supreme leader of North Korea is the 30-year-old son of the former supreme leader of North Korea and the grandson of the former-former supreme leader. His only claim to power is heredity, in a country that does not have a recognized monarchy. To consolidate his power he must persuade the military and party elites that he is a reliable successor who will perpetuate the system that keeps them happy.

Life would be so much nicer if all of us would work toward similar goals. But, I guess that's never going to happen. Our elected officials in Washington can't work together, how in the Hell can anyone expect our diplomats to work with North Korea, or them to work with us?

Four days a week I sit down in front of this lap top and think and write and think a little more. I try to be entertaining. I try not to be careless and uninformed, I check my facts. I worry about what you think. I try very hard never to be hurtful or too controversial. The blog counter broke 25,000 today. Thank you all for reading it and thanks for your comments. I surely do appreciate it.

Yesterday I read, in order to master something you need to do it for 10,000 hours. I figure I have 1,435 hours into the blog. At the rate I'm going I should be good in 13.8 years. I wish I'd started a little sooner, what the fuck am I going to write about when I'm seventy-seven? It's rather late to start a new career. I'll be happy if I can eat solid food.

I just took a short break. Walking through the living room I glanced out the front window at our fountain. Off for the winter it still attracts birds and one was perched on its top. I slowly walked toward the front window watching it. The bird was beautiful. Although very still, its head was bobbing back and forth, eyes moving as if looking for a desirable insect to devour for lunch. I thought about getting the camera and capturing this colorful image. Just as I moved, the bird lurched it's head forward, lifted it's tail, shit on the edge of the fountain and flew away. 

Guess that's telling me.