Murph and me watch the squirrels during our morning sit-down on the porch. There is a mixed population of grays and blacks, with chipmunks staying to themselves. Each clan largely stays close to its own fur. The grays are quite hierarchical and just chose another chief to preside over rodent relations, becoming an absolute nutter. Tho whole rodent population can quickly see how badly the grays are acting under senile leadership. The blacks won't even shake their tails at them anymore. The crows laugh from the trees at them all because the squirrel drama gives the crows greater dominance over the whole backyard.
Yard Watch
The Bigger They Are
As Brick said, "Mendacity is a system that we live in." How true now with the cyber augmentations that can compound this system infinitely? He suggested two answers: The drink and death. Both are solutions for cowardice. How about asking better questions? How about the role of skepticism? How about walking right up to the monstrous mendacious system and staring it down armed with the integrity of a child. A motorcycle gang member walked into a corner store. He was known as a bully and a brute. A 5-year-old girl noticed him, walked up to him and said, "May I sing you a song?" The chain-wearing Hell's Angel grunted, so the little girl grinned & began: "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so..." The colossal fellow melted as his tears flowed. The little girl smiled and touched his hand.
Metabolically Screwed non-Poetry
Big business paid off scientists who skewed data about harmful substances. Remember when people were told cigarettes are safe? Look backwards 60 years. It took several decades to expose the tobacco magnates who funded scientists to support their carcinogenic product. Consider also the lie that dietary fat is more obesigenic than refined sugar and carbohydrate. This infernal lie is still passed off by those who call themselves experts but refuse to take the time to dig deeper, still clinging to the convenient dogma they inherited. Meanwhile, 4 in 10 are now obese with 75% of the population being insulin resistance with prediabetes and a fatty liver - this is happening in supposedly the most developed country in the world. Diabetes is a far more pandemic than covid, yet old lies still find die-hard adherents among the willfully ignorant pseudo-scientific community who spike the science. Woke yet?
As Good Once as Ever Was
Our cat was named Kelly. She was a tortoiseshell outdoor cat of the '60s who lived on eight acres of an untamed rural homestead. She was as wild as her environment. She regularly fought with dogs, cats, and other vermin. At about 14 years of age, she lost an eye. She was an old warrior that was hard to look at. During her last years, her royal leadership over her subjects seemed to wane. She rested during the days basking in the sun, waiting for her final call. One day, a cadre of chipmunks surrounded her bedraggled reclining body. She seemed to struggle just to breathe. I felt sorry for her as I saw the chippies taunt and mock dancing around her spent frame. I came back later. Kelly's cheeks were full, and a sad tail-less victim was trapped under one clawed paw. The remaining eye squinted a feline smile at my naivety.
Dope
Most squirrels are black where we live. Today, while gallivanting with Murph, one clambered up a maple tree ahead of us. It was jet-black sporting snow-white back feet. Its back paws resembled tennis shoes. It knows it is dope by the jauntiness with which it kicked up its heels. I imagine the other black squirrels have made this one a celebrity of sorts. The pit bull wasn't impressed and wanted it for breakfast.
Street Smarts
Entering a game without an exit strategy is asking for a fool's mate. Painting a floor without leaving an alternate way will corner the painter. Even the most ordinary tasks have an order and logic that puzzles those who try them mindlessly & get caught with their pants down. If a particular street is known for a gang of hoodlums who waylay pedestrians, don't go that way. Instead, be schooled by those missing teeth and wallets or again wear the dunce cap.
Caught
A watching squirrel holds vertically to the trunk of a tree with tail curling down. It doesn't move until we are almost next to it. Then stealths up into the concealing foliage but still intently observing from its semi-hidden seat. Murphy sees too and points her snout as if to ask "May I spring and catch it?" She assumes I am such a killjoy.
Substrate
The five gates have a substrate, which is undervalued and hugely ignored. But what if we dig down into our bare perception? Who is known if we are aware of our own attention? If we can watch ourselves from a third-person vantage point, who is watching? The observed is who? Is there one or two into one --or more? See how effortless it is to depreciate our real essence? We take our existence for granted because it is.
Cycles
After 38 billion elliptical miles, I realize the watchcare over my life is circumspect. Like the vibrating atmosphere surrounding the hummingbird, it swam through yesterday before my lagging eyes. It had no frown on its metallic blue face while it poked the Lady Baltimore one by one.
Face Off
The gradual discovery of who You truly are is the supreme romance-- What You are beneath the molded crust of artificial misrepresentations may lie inert for decades. One day pops like a jack-in-the-box, there You are--- face to face with a stranger, unrecognizable, until it dawns on you that the original is the real, and that you have unwittingly degraded into a faded simulation of the authentic You.
