I wonder, I wonder…

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein

(a local resident wondering what is this thing he has spotted in the woods/ Julie Cook /2024)

There’s a current commercial running, out there in TV land,
sponsored by the Cunard Cruise line.
The commercial begins with a man’s melodious voice…
such a beautifully accented laced voice, musing… “I wonder, I wonder…”

It’s a commercial that cuts to my quick.
I find myself either muting or changing channels when I catch wind of that wonderment.
I refuse to listen…not bothering to return to what I was watching until I know
that blasted commercial is over.

Not, mind you, because my reaction has anything to do with cruises or trips…
but rather because it has everything to do with imagining, wondering, dreaming…
along with what exactly all of that might actually look like.

Obviously to the marketing strategists behind the commercial, that wondering,
imagining, dreaming, has everything to do with you and I desiring about being on some sort of enchanted trip…ie, one of their cruise ships.
They want us to enjoy an almost mystical, magical, fabulous, ethereal sort of life.
Sipping champagne under the stars, dressed to the nines while relishing all that is
glamorous and fabulous…staring upward at the stars,
all while silently gliding over a vast sea toward never never land.

Forget any storms at sea, diverted ports of call, perilous waves,
imperfect weather, rampant cases of Norovirus running amuck, children clamoring and
darting all around…they would rather for both you and I to simply imagine something
marvelously great and grand… as we find ourselves wrapped in contentment,
serenity and peace.

However, in my case, that commercial invokes a very strong emotion.

Of which is exactly what the marketing strategists long for out of any targeted group…
the goal is that said audience experience something which evokes emotion—
a sense of the visceral.
And if that happens, then the marketing gods have done their duty.

Yet for me, that visceral emotion invoked is not the imagery of a glamorous
ocean adventure on a royal cruise line…but rather it is an almost gut wrenching
suffocating sense caused by what the voice behind the commercial is saying…
“I wonder, I wonder…”

It makes me, draws me… to the simple feat of wondering…wondering of a what could be.

The narrator in question of this particular commercial is the late Alan Watts—
who according to Wikipedia and the Spectator, was an English writer, speaker, and self-styled “philosophical entertainer” who was born 6 January 1915 and died 16 November 1973.
Watts was known for interpreting and popularising Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience.
“Watts was a sixties hippie, a Zen Buddhist pop philosopher who sought to
soothe the anxieties of the newly tuned in.”/em>

In other words, he was a leading mover and shaker in the hippie movement of the late 60’s
whose writing and voice are currently being used to promote a grand false perception
of a holiday life on a cruise ship.
A bit of a paradox really.
A hippie Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, non conformist is now a promoting money maker for a cruise line.
Philosophy promoting marketing….
Maybe we have a new subculture of something known as philosophical marketing…But I digress…
as usual.

The commercial begins with a soothing “I wonder, I wonder…
what you would do if you had the power to dream any dream…”

And what I dream and wonder about is not cruise ships or banquets or love affairs
or adventure or wishes–
not the stuff that the commercial is hoping you and I dream about
but rather I dream about two little people who are currently lost to me and who
I deeply long to find.

Thus in order to expunge some of the angst which I find myself wrapped in when I suddenly
hear Mr. Watts beginning his monologue on my television, I’ve had to do what any red blooded
21st century soul would do…
I’ve visited “mr. google”…I googled the story behind the monologue.

Here is the full text of the monologue…

Let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that
you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example,
have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time.
Or any length of time you wanted to have.
And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams,
you would fulfill all your wishes.
You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive.
And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each,
you would say “Well, that was pretty great.”
But now let’s have a surprise.
Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control.
Where something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it’s going to be.
And you would dig that and come out of that and say
“Wow, that was a close shave, wasn’t it?”
And then you would get more and more adventurous,
and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream.
And finally, you would dream … where you are now.
You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today.
Alan Watts

And so…it seems that the tale is rather a full circle sort of musing.
The dreams of the what if’s mixed with the realities of the what are…
Not so much dreaming about how we might desire to find ourselves
but rather dreaming of what our lives actually are…
and perhaps making that actual life better…

As a spiritual Christian who is not a Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist or hippie,
I simply think God wants us to live our lives as best we can…in the present moment.
I don’t think God wants us so much to concentrate and expel our supply of energies
on the what ifs, the could have beens, the should have beens, the only if’s…
but rather He’d prefer us to do the best with the here and now—no matter how hard sometimes that might be—while also being purposeful with those individuals currently around us…be it friend or stranger. One candle lighting the light for others.

It’s fine to dream and to hope, in fact it is often imperative that we do so,
but at the same time, I also believe we can get too mired down in said hopes and dreams,
often losing the importance of the here and now.

We simply can get stuck in all the longing.

And when we do, we lose what we actually have right in front of us…and isn’t that
the one thing we actually have some sense of control over…
that which is right in front of us?

Having thought long and hard about it, I don’t have to mute the commercial anymore.
I just go about the task of living the life right in front of me.
The one life God gave me. I might mess it up, I might make mistakes but all He asks
is that I keep trying. Live this moment to your best ability.
I’ll keep trying God.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34

indescribable

“The perfection of learning is to know God in such a way that,
though you realize he is knowledge, yet you know him as indescribable.”
Saint Hilary of Poitiers

(Mt. Mitchell range in the sleet and clouds / Julie Cook /2024)

(a coating of ice/ Julie Cook / 2024)

(clearing skies along the Mt. Mitchell range /Julie Cook /2024)

To know that God is indescribable, one needs to just look outside…
as none of what one sees can simply be put a nice neat little box of explanation…

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;
all things have been created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:16

wild horses

“Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.”
Virginia Woolf

(the foal Fawn / Corolla Beach/ Julie Cook / 2023)

There is a 200 mile stretch of land that is primarily comprised of a variety
of islands and spits sitting just off the coast of the southeastern US—
It’s known as the Outer Banks or… to those who know the place more intimately,
it is simply referred to OBX.

It is an Atlantic coastal barrier island-mass that stretches from the southern tip to the northern tip, that being the full length of the far eastern edge of North Carolina.

There is a tremendous amount of history associated with this particular slender landmass.
Everything from the very first and oddly lost colony of English settlers to the very first
moment man set flight becoming one with the sky.

While we mere mortals exist in a continuum of both space and time–our past often races forward,
quickly becoming our future. Sands shift, storms change shorelines as peoples come and go…
all the while history remains in the wake.

Lone fledgling colonies are lost…their memory left to morph into an endless stretch of summer beach homes, restaurants and tourist shops as men who once made historic flights are now relegated to both museum and memorial fodder.

And yet in this collision of all things past and present, there remains a single and most important bastion to a past that was and yet still remains to this day.

The wild horses of Corolla and Currituck.

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

Along the most northern stretch of the Outer Banks, up toward the Virginia state line, there remains a relatively non commercialized bit of the world where the water simply meets the sand.
There are no paved roads, only sand dunes.
There are a few stalwart home owners that can only reach their “bits of paradise”
by four wheel drive.

And that’s where “they” live.
The wild horses.

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

These horses are the original descendants of the mustangs that the Spanish brought to the new world in the 1500’s.

According the the visit.currituk.com website:

The wild horses were originally brought here in the 1500s on Spanish ships. The shallow nature of the coast off of Corolla and the unpredictable sandbars have caused the area to be known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, and caused many a shipwreck. It is believed that the horses survived such occasions to swim to shore, making a new home for themselves, and they’ve been here ever since.

Whether roaming the sand-streets or enjoying the fine sea mist on the shores of Corolla, these horses are free to wander as they please. They stroll through neighborhoods and yards, pausing to nibble a bite of grass, sea oats, live oak tree leaves or persimmons.

Their legs are short, their bodies stocky and their fur fluffier than domesticated horses. Locals and visitors alike steer clear, out of respect and concern for their protection. Their diets are narrow and their health precarious; the slightest contact with humans can be lethal for the horses. This is why it is so important to never get closer than 50 feet from one of these beautiful creatures.

Although mild in personality, these horses are entirely untamed, and can be quite territorial. Stallions regularly break into battle over mares, food and resources, and visitors are well-advised to keep a healthy distance for fear of spooking one. Although smaller than most horses, they are still extremely strong, and protective of their fellows.

Back in the Fall, I was fortunate to have a tour of the area…seeing just one of
the small herds of these horses rather up close and personal.
The total number os horses is just around 100, give or take.
During my visit, we were fortunate to have seen a recent Spring-born foal nicknamed
Fawn by the tour guides.

These horses are not looked after by keepers or vets.
They are not given supplemental feed or medicines.
They are not tended to during hurricanes or storms.
There are no barns or stalls in which they go to seek shelter.
They are entirely on their own…
Wild and unencumbered by man..

A small vacuum of time that exists where the sea meets the surf…

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

https://www.visitcurrituck.com/places/corolla-wild-horses/

sunsets always lead to a sunrise…

“If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman,
I shall feel that I have worked with God.”
G.K. Chesterton

“How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather
from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the
London cloud-bank.
It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet,
who are on a stranger errand than you and I.
How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the
great elemental forces of Nature!”
Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes:
The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

(a winter’s sunset / Julie Cook /2024)

Why does anyone “blog”?

I think I wrote a post about this very notion many years ago.

And yet here I am, once again, finding myself asking that very same question…

Why does anyone blog?

Why is it that some of us choose to sit down at a computer and tap away at a thought,
an idea, a question…simply to attach it to the surreal oddity known as cyberspace?
Placing a piece of us, our thoughts and our feelings, “out there”…
where exactly, no one seems to really know, but out there nonetheless?

I know that for me, I stumbled my way here to WP, this particular address in cyberspace,
over eleven years ago. I did so because, as a recently retired teacher,
I knew I still had things I wanted to say and share.

Maybe it was the new freedom found in a lack of authoritative constraints regarding
what I could now say and share…that regarding the importance of faith and salvation…
maybe it was because I was entering a new stage of life, caring for aging parents.
Maybe it was because I had been adopted and wanted to address that aspect of myself.

No matter the reasons nor those various stages of life, nor those thoughts and topics…
I think it was simply because I wanted to communicate.

For it was in that desire to communicate, to share…
which in turn gave way to other items to share…other thoughts…
other seemingly important things to pass on….that I found myself “blogging”.

And thus as we “blog”, as we tap out thoughts, sending them to attach themselves
to cyberspace, we inevitably “meet” folks.

As in… isn’t that the gist of all of this tapping out of words…a desire to communicate
with others—and doesn’t communication lead to dialogue—
as in…conversation with others?

We write to communicate and to converse with others.

So naturally we would imagine, assume, hope that there are other folks out there
who will actually stumble across our ramblings and sharings.
Like-minded folks and not so like-minded.

As these folks read our words, many will in turn comment.
It’s at that moment that a door opens,
welcoming others to come in to sit a spell and to chat.

And just like that, in that very instance, we begin to build community over the sharing
of thoughts and ideas. Matters not if everyone is on the same page…there is a untied
desire to share.

One day, during sharing here in bogland, I was fortunate to have stumbled into
Oneta Hayes over on Sweet Aroma.

I can’t remember who ran into whom first…was it me into her, or her into me??

Did we each comment on someone else’s post or did we comment on one another’s post?
Was that what lead to a curiosity into what one another was actually writing about
which lead us to one another’s site?

Was it my desire to sit at her knee as she taught me more and more about
Jesus, His Father, our God, and of the mysteries of the Holy Spirit?

No matter how it happened, we met…here in bogland.

There is a great deal to share about that meeting
and the inevitable teachings, sharings, and sense of community…
the endless comments back and forth…
The eventual sharing of emails, addresses and phone numbers.

However today is not that day to reminisce as there is simply not enough time.

But it should be known that over the years I came to deeply love Oneta…
as I know she loved me.

See that’s how Oneta was, she made you feel loved.
Mattered not that you’d not actually physically sat together enjoying
tea or lemonade out in the back yard…waiting on Sammy to get back from running errands
or knowing Carl’s family was soon to come to lunch….
sometimes we are just fortunate, or more likely blessed, to find such individuals.

Remember, I don’t believe in coincidence.

Oneta possessed a genuineness of pure kindness.
Mattered not if she disagreed with you, did not follow your life’s tenants,
did not agree with your politics….she still expressed a genuine and true kindness.

There were those who visited her blog who came with hostility toward her
deeply rooted faith and beliefs but she was never unkind.
She went toe to toe with nonbelievers and those of opposite minded politics,
always holding her own, and I imagine many of them went away merely scratching their heads wondering what had just transpired as she gently let all hostile air out of
any and all balloons.

Oneta had experienced increasing health issues over the last year.
She often wrote about them in between her latest Bible teachings, her dabble with Haikus,
or feelings regarding the state of the nation.

It was late summer when I think she last posted something.

Knowing in my heart that she must have “moved on” as it were, news came recently from her daughter via Oneta’s own blog site that Oneta Hayes went home on January 4th.

I was saddened at the news and yet at the same time… I was not nor am I sad.

I am sad that we will not meet here on earth face to face.
I am sad that I will not be able to read new thoughts and ideas that Oneta is offering.
I am sad that I will no longer be taught at the knee of this amazing woman.
I am sad she will no longer ring my phone.

And yet I am filled with wonder at the thought of Oneta truly communing with not only Angels
but basking in the Glory of her Savior… and mine…
For she is now in that place she spoke about being so often.

I still have a voicemail on my phone from Oneta…she called me often during a very dark time when I was wading through divorce.
At the time, I had not, and still have not, posted very regularly.

The voice mail:
“Hey this is Oneta, I’m missing you and wanted to tell you so.
Anyway hope all is going well for you babe…my cookie…bye bye.”

Bye bye indeed Oneta—just for a short while…

I believe IB over on Insanitybytes put it best this morning in a comment to me…
“This pastor once said the goal is to get so close to Jesus that when you pass
away heaven is already your comfortable home,
so you are really just stepping from one room to the next.
You haven’t really left at all.”

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death’[a] or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:4

Christmas and freedom …

For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction,
to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean
themselves as good citizens…
May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land,
continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants.”
(excerpt is taken from a letter written by George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation
in Newport, Rhode Island)

I’m currently reading a marvelous book, George Washington And Benedict Arnold
A Tale of Two Patriots
by Dave R. Palmer

Now you might be asking yourself what in the world does such a tale
have to do with Christmas…?
and indeed such a notion might be vexing to most.

The book follows the woven threads of two men, both of whom originally seem to
have been cut from the same ideological cloth…and yet eventually make choices contrary
to such in the chaotic midsts of the the perilous birth pangs of a fledgling nation.

And it was the book’s recounting of that arduous Christmas eve crossing upon
an ice ladened swirling black river by poorly clad men wearing mere rags for shoes
followed by a Christmas Day’s surprise attack on an unsuspecting Hessian militia,
which became the key turning point in the freedom that we each now take
seemingly for granted…

Thoughts of Christmas, births, wars, death, Christians, Jews, antisemitism,
world conflict, gifts, joy…all colliding into one…
and in the end, what are we to make of it all…

I wrote the following post in 2019.

A timely recollection might be a bit beneficial to us all…

There has been a growing debate for years concerning the religious beliefs of our Founding Fathers…
A debate now rapidly growing and gaining in interest as many folks now wish to expunge all
references to God from our founding documents, our pledge, our historical architecture,
our books, and even our currency.

It appears that many non-believers and progressive provocateurs look to Thomas Jefferson when they wish
to begin an argument about God’s presence, or lack thereof, in this Nation of ours…
as Jefferson’s personal beliefs have always been a bit grey and convoluted given his keen interest in science
as well as theism and deism.

Jefferson was a devout theist, believing in a benevolent creator God to whom humans owed praise.
In an early political text, he wrote that “The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time;…”
He often referred to his or “our” God but did so in the language of an eighteenth-century natural
philosophy: “our creator,” the “Infinite Power, which rules the destinies of the universe,”
“overruling providence,” “benevolent governor,” etc.
In 1823, he wrote to John Adams referring to
“the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore” while denouncing atheism.

Jefferson said that Christianity would be the best religion in a republic,
especially one like the United States with a broad diversity of ethnicities and religions.
“[T]he Christian religion when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have
inveloped it, and brought to the original purity &; simplicity of its benevolent institutor,
is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, & the freest expression of the human mind,”
he explained. It was a “benign religion…
inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and love of man,
acknowledging and adoring an overruling providence.”
Based on these understandings, Jefferson demonstrated a deep, even devout, admiration of Jesus,
“the purity & sublimity of his moral precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations,
the beauty of the apologues in which he conveys them…

It was in this context that Jefferson said that
“I am a Christian,” a quote which is often repeated or referred to without context.
What he said was “I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he [Jesus] wished anyone to be;…”
Monticello Organization

And speaking of John Adams…probably my favorite president as well as favorite Founding Father,
it seems we glean much of our knowledge of both Adams and Jefferson, along with their feelings and thoughts
regarding the Christian faith, from their correspondence between one another.

“Much of what we know of Thomas Jefferson’s religion comes from letters he wrote from 1811 to 1826
to John Adams. Much more of what we know about John Adams’ views on religion comes from
his letters to Jefferson.
Religion was important to John Adams

“From early entries in his diary to letters written late in life,
Adams composed variations on a single theme:
God is so great, I am so small.
Adams never doubted who was in charge of the universe,
never viewed himself as master of his, or anyone’s destiny.”

There was a strong Puritan strain to Adams’ morality even when he strayed from Puritans’
religious precepts:
Adams wrote at 21 “that this World was not designed for a lasting and a happy State,
but rather for a State of moral Discipline, that we might have a fair Opportunity
and continual Excitement to labour after a cheerful Resignation to all the Events of Providence,
after Habits of Virtue, Self Government, and Piety.
And this Temper of mind is in our Power to acquire,
and this alone can secure us against all the Adversities of Fortune,
against all the Malice of men, against all the Operations of Nature.”

Like Jefferson, Adams was a child of the Enlightenment.
The future president brought to religion a lively interest in science that he developed at Harvard.
Steven Waldman wrote: “Like [John] Locke, Adams believed that since God created the laws of the universe,
the scientific study of nature would help us understand His mind and conform to His wishes.

Like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams believed in the utility of religion even when he had doubts
about religious beliefs themselves:
“Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite society, I mean hell.
Lehrmaninstitue.org

So as we turn our sights to Washington and his personal views…
We know that the General and future President remains a bit of an enigma when it comes
to our understanding anything truly personal within Washington’s true beliefs.

Washington remains a larger than life figure in our Nation’s history
and yet he was a very private man…
probably more so than his fellow fraternity of Founding Fathers.
The Lehrmaninstitue offers this: George Washington worked hard to keep separate his public and
private views on religion.

History tells us that Washington’s life-long love was his dear Mt Vernon, farming and family…
Following his departure from office, disappearing into obscurity at Mt Vernon was most welcomed.

In most later paintings of Washington, we see an often dour man…particularly emotionless.
Some historians credit chronic mouth pain due to, yes, wooden dentures, to Washington’s pained and
stoic portraits.
At the same time, we know that Washington had been raised an Anglican.
Anglicans by nature, both then and now, are characteristically reserved when it comes to their faith.
They are not as demonstrative nor vocal regarding their belief in God or that of their faith.
I know because I was raised under a similar umbrella.

The Mount Vernon Organization shares a private insight with us…
Looking at Washington’s theological beliefs,
it is clear that he believed in a Creator God of some manner,
and seemingly one that was also active in the universe.
This God had three main traits; he was wise, inscrutable, and irresistible.

Washington referred to this God by many names, but most often by the name of “Providence.”

Washington also referred to this being by other titles to infer that this God was
the Creator God.

This aspect of his belief system is central to the argument about whether or not
Washington was a Deist.
His belief in God’s action in the world seems to preclude traditional deism.
Washington believed that humans were not passive actors in this world.
However, for Washington, it was also improper to question Providence.
This caused Washington to accept whatever happened as being the will of Providence.

Notably, Washington did see God as guiding the creation of the United States.

It is also possible that Washington felt he needed to discern the will of Providence.
These facts point to belief in a God who is hidden from humanity,
yet continually influencing the events of the universe.

This does not illustrate conclusively that he was a devout Christian, however.
Washington never explicitly mentioned the name of Jesus Christ in
private correspondence.
The only mentions of Christ are in public papers, and those references are scarce.
However, Washington’s lack of usage may be due to the accepted practice of his day;
Jesus was not typically referenced by Anglicans or Episcopalians of Washington’s generation.
Mount Vernon Organization

And whereas each man had his own personal and private thoughts and feelings regarding a Divine
Omnipotent Creator…each man, however, was very much convinced that this Creator was pivotal
to laying the foundation of the new fledgling nation.
He was intertwined within her birth, invited to play a key role and intentionally injected into
each part of her birthing fibers.

History teaches us that each man agreed that God and the Christian faith were vital
to the birth of the young nation. A unifying base.
And each man demonstrated a unique humility with regard to that which was greater than themselves.

These Founding Fathers provided us with a foundation as well as a guidepost.
It is my hope that we will not depart from the very foundation that our earliest architects
found necessary to our survival as a viable and functioning nation.

May we continue to humble ourselves to the one true Creator who is far greater than ourselves
and may He continue to shed his Grace on us all.

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washington-and-religion/

https://www.foxnews.com/science/george-washington-letter-on-god-and-the-constitution-surfaces

a reminder of civility from an older post…

The current leading headlines:

Hamas, Hezbollah say Iran helped plan deadly attack on Israel

Israel retaliates after Hamas attacks, deaths pass 1,100

More than 250 people killed at festival after Hamas attacks Israel

US sends warships, ammunition to Israel after surprise attack; death toll
may include Americans

Hamas has launched an unprecedented attack against Israel.

Israel at war with Hamas after unprecedented attacks

Recent headlines have given me cause to look back while wondering what
might actually lie ahead…

A post written in 2015

(griffin / Dublin, Ireland / Julie Cook / 2015)

Standards of conduct
June 3o, 2016

“Since the dawn of the Christian era a certain way of life has slowly been shaping itself among the Western peoples, and certain standards of conduct and government have come to be esteemed”
Winston Churchill, radio brodcast to American and London, October 16, 1938

There is a fine line that separates man from beast.
That ever narrowing thread between the human being of intelligence and the animal of wildness.

Oh there are multiple layers of separation that one might argue.
Physical, emotional, psychological, physiological….
As those more lofty scientific minded and behavior specialists among us will no doubt argue and bicker back and forth disputing this fact and that…

But when all is said and done…when the dust has settled and a close inspection has been taken…
we see that thin and narrowing line of true separation is to be found narrowly in man’s ability to manage him or herself with a certain standard of conduct.

The beasts of the land, the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air each seem to act and react with little to no thought toward any sort of standard of conduct…
For theirs is more or less action verses reaction motivated by the need, want and defense of hunger, provocation and mating.

It is true that they may be trained to demonstrate some level of restraint, some sort of rational sorting between this and that, but the bottom line is that training and reward does not equate to the innate ability for rational thinking.

Humans have a wealth of motives, actions and reactions all met and matched by pondering, thinking, discerning, sorting, rationalizing, defending, and determined restraint.

Yet with with an exponentially growing and frightening degree of alarm we should note that the line of man’s standard of conduct, over the past 80 years, dare we say since his very inception, has diminished at a rapid rate.

The actions and reactions of man…the corruption, the lying, the killing, the justification, the murderous terrorism is quickly overtaking the established determined level of civility of conduct found in what was once a deeply rooted foundation to the Judaeo Christian pillars of Western Civilization.

Kingdoms and other forms of human government exist because humanity has fallen away from God.
In human society, the default is always towards anarchy and chaos—as the history of the twentieth centruy in particular amply illustrates. Something must resist and restrain the downward spiral into disorder.
Therefore, God institutes and permits governments.
Excerpt: God and Churchill
Jonathan Sandys and Wallace Henley

Kings and their kingdoms, for the most part, have given way to parliaments, councils and republics.
Today’s Governments have each been birthed out of the early ancient ruling tribes as man has needed to be reigned in, from more or less…himself.

Rules, laws, standards of conduct have had to be implemented in order to afford man the ability to live in a state of order verses the chaos, anarchy, civil unrest and the destructive every man for himself.

Order had to be established.

Yet in that order we are finding a certain level of complacency.
A desire to not have a single boat rocked.
We like our certain standard of living, our freedom, our choices, our self absorption…
We therefore do not wish to acknowledge the decent of various peoples into the more savage behavior that the world is currently witnessing…
We want to ignore the rise of the wild beasts around us lest we perhaps follow suit…

Be it…
Daesh (ISIS)
Hezbollah
Al-Qaeda
The Taliban
Boko Haram
Hamas
Al-shabaab
The Muslim Brotherhood
or any local mafia, militant or terror group…rearing its ugly head.

From groups to actual nations and Governments who eerily morph or have reverted to a form and time when life and death were easily confused.

The following Washington Post excerpt is based on an interview with CIA Director John Brennan

“More recently, he had to confront his Russian counterparts over evidence that their intelligence operatives have been systematically harassing U.S. diplomats both in Moscow and Europe. According to a Washington Post report, Russian agents have paid journalists to write negative stories about Americans, have followed their kids home from school and, in one case, have even broken into a U.S. defense attache’s home and killed his dog. Brennan says he told his counterparts “in direct terms,” that the behavior was “unacceptable” and “destructive” to the relationship.”

There was a reason why, Winston Churchill, who was not an overtly religious man, was compelled to hold strongly and vowed to fight to the death for the Mosaic laws as issued from the Sovereign Creator…

He knew the importance of the standard of conduct issued by God himself….

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:…
Deuteronomy 28:1…

the pendulum

“The pendulum had swung too far, as always, and now was swinging back,
and the horror of intolerance had been loosed upon the land.”
Clifford D. Simak, Time Is the Simplest Thing

(an old pendulum to one of my grandmother’s clocks/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

I can pretty much remember my high school Lit classes rather vividly…
along with my classes in Sociology, Anthropology and always my beloved history classes.

We were charged with having to read various tales such as A Brave New World, Animal Farm, The Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward, 1984—tales now classified as dystopian….
or what the Oxford dictionary tells us is something
“relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.”

I thought authors such as Solzhenitsyn were merely recounting a past that was no longer
and that Huxley and Orwell were science fiction writers with vivid imaginations…
depressive imaginations but most vivid.

1984 seemed so far away.
Tales of gulags, soon to be big brotheresque societies, societal meltdowns all rang
of gloom and doom.

What my mind imagined to be most important was that I’d just gotten my driver’s license…
events such as graduation were still some time off—then college lay ahead…
heck, life itself lay ahead!!!

Vietnam was behind us.
Communism didn’t seem to be what it was.
The Fallout Shelter signs still hanging on the walls of the school were no longer noticed.
And the future, my future, was an oyster filled with pearls to be found…right?

The books I was having to read left me feeling uncomfortable and troubled.
I really didn’t want to imagine such a world.
I didn’t want to think about it, dwell upon it.
Not a world where my own government actually planned and plotted against me.
A government telling, nay demanding, that I do its bidding.

The government worked for me, for us, didn’t it??

Wasn’t I living in the United States for heaven’s sake??
We were in the throes of celebrating our Bicentennial.
Flag pins and all things Red, White and Blue were not only the rage but the norm.
There was a sense of pride and vast excitement.

1776 to 1976—-
the battle from tyranny and oppression to democratic freedom had
been valiantly fought and now maintained for a solid 200 years…..
It was a phenomenon that many considered to be a mere experiment–
a foolhardy foray into the realm of a working democracy.
A novelty that certainly wouldn’t, couldn’t, last and yet merrily it appeared to be
doing just that…working as well as flourishing.

Yet always in the back of my youthful mind rose questions…
Could the books I was reading actually happen?
Could such worlds, such times come to fruition during my lifetime?

Please tell me no.

Well…I think, rather sadly, that we all now know the answer to my youthful query.

I taught high school for 31 years.
I’ve been retired now for almost 12 years.

It was a period of time that witnessed mimeograph machines, carbon paper, typewriters,
grade ledgers, chalk boards, pay phones, film projectors, overhead projectors
all oddly yet interestingly disappear one by one…
all the while they morphed into other things.

Things such as xerox machines, fax machines, smart boards, mobile phones, computers,
power point presentations, smart tablets…
Technology had come into its own, especially in the world of education.

I was one of those teachers who actually replaced a hard copy grade book and calculator
with a computer and a variety of grading platforms and programs.
A teacher who went from papers and pens to a computer. A huge thing that took up an entire table.
Cables and wires all tethered to things such a modems and towers, and printers.

It was a huge learning curve for the current sitting educator.
We were straddling an expanse of time of what had been and what was to be…
and we had to hurry up to get on board as it was all advancing faster than we
could be taught to keep up.

This trip down memory lane came to the forefront of my brain this morning when I caught
an interesting article posted on the Federalist.

It’s an article about cell phone and classrooms.

Answer The Call Already: Ban Smartphones In Schools
by By: Jermey S. Adams / October 04, 2023

It made me remember the days when kids began to bring iPods and cell phones into the school.
At first we teachers were tasked with confiscating these interloping devices.

However both parent and student became incensed that we were taking up personal property.
Expensive personal property…despite it being returned by the end of the day.
One too many offenses and the parents would have to come pick up the device.
That went over like a massive stone of inconvenience.

What if there was an emergency for heaven’s sake?!
Had we not suffered through Columbine?
Did parents not have the right to be able to immediately contact their children
if the need should arise?

This was also the time that social media was on the rise.

Oddities such as Chat rooms, Myspace, texting were on the move.
iPods were ever present as kids would walk down the halls with wires
leading to their ears.
Tuned in, yet tuned out.

It was clear that this burgeoning bit of technology within schools was becoming a monster
that needed to be tamed.
But the question was how.

Eventually the idiom of if we can’t beat them, join them came into play.
The eureka thought was that we must incorporate their devices into the curriculum.
We’ll strike a live and let live coexistence.

But what of the darker side?

The sexting.
The predation.
The cyber bullying?
The blatant cheating…all at the touch of a finger.

Mr. Adams notes in his article a familiar place I readily remember…
There was a moment in the past decade when most teachers,
myself included, thought that the ubiquitous presence of cell phones made a war
against them unwinnable.
Many of us thought it more judicious to find a way to integrate the technology
into our classroom routines.
Likewise, many of us were open to discipline reform and innovation
in the way we graded our students.
But the reality of what these fashionable ideas have done to American
education is too difficult to ignore.
The pendulum can, and must, start to swing the other way.

It certainly appears that Mr. Adams’ article is most timely.

He notes that an array of studies and data now tell us that the overt use of technology,
social media, et el, is a detriment to learning rather than a boon.

I think many of us figured this out years ago.
Yet our students are now suffering due to our own frantic efforts to appease them while
striking some sort of balance.

We knew what worked and what was best yet we wanted to keep the peace.
We capitulated.
We leaned toward a kumbaya sense of equity of leveling all playing fields.
We wanted to appear sympathetic and not hurt feelings or what we falsely assumed
to be fragile egos.
Pass all, fail no one.
Advance them on regardless of whether they made the grade or not.
Failure was too painful.
Hard work was simply that, too hard.

And so I was actually very happy to read that countries such a France, Italy, Finland
and even England were now banning cell phones from schools.

As a young new teacher I can remember an older more senior teacher once
remarking that education was a pendulum.
It will swing in one direction for a time, then eventually swing back.

Be that good or bad.

I just hope we are beginning to actually swing back to a more sensible direction…
all before it’s too late in what has become our foolhardy race to a static state of
inertia.

Here’s a link to the article:

https://thefederalist.com/2023/10/04/answer-the-call-already-ban-smartphones-in-schools/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=answer-the-call-already-ban-smartphones-in-schools&utm_term=2023-10-04

the humble onion (a reboot)

“Life is an onion–
you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.”
Carl Sandburg

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
Thomas Aquinas

(Nothing Fancy episode from Foyle’s War)

I’ve taken back to rewatching a favorite series of mine, Folye’s War.

It’s a long story but when Spectrum and Disney hit a snag in their partnership of
entertaining the masses, channels such a ESPN, Disney, ABC…et el, were blocked from
Spectrum viewers.

Do you know what that meant???

It meant that there was no college football for Spectrum viewers!!!

Well not exactly a total blackout…
I could still pick up teams like the Huskies and the Bruins.

With no offense to Husky or Bruin fans, there’s just something extra special,
something akin to the mystical, about watching football in the deep South.
Teams such as the Huskies and Bruins just aren’t deep South favs.

It was actually more like, as if on some sick and maniacal cue,
right at the exact time of kickoff…the kickoff of a season that could
actually be witness to my beloved DAWGS making some sort of miraculous history
that only Wally Butts and Vince Dooley could be proud of…
there was no SEC football.

For a UGA football fanatic such as myself, well, it was as if Dante had sent me to
one of his inner rings of hell…

It was the ring where the game was stuck… standing still on a screen with no
realtime action taking place..all the while souls such as myself, who were
stuck in said ring, knew that live action was indeed taking place outside of
the ring…yet time for us was nonexistent.
A ring where college football fans, especially those lovers of ACC and SEC football,
were simply left to stare at blank screens.

The solution???? Stream the viewing.

That sounded like an easy solution, but mine was an older TV—
Couple said older TV with the lack of electronic and tech savviness, and well,
I felt sheer panic rising within.

I could have gotten one of those gadgets such as a fire stick or Roku device
but what do I know about those????

I decided my best bet was to bite the bullet and get a new TV…one with all those
app thingees already on it and then, with the help of the proverbial geek squad,
I could figure out which apps I’d want and which ones I didn’t….and actually find my
blasted football!!!!

Yet as fate would have it, right when the new tv was delivered,
Spectrum and Disney stuck a deal.

Spectrum kept reassuring us complaining customers that this was Deisney’s fault and we, the consumer would be the better for it in the end…well, I missed 3 weeks of UGA football games…how that was beneficial is beyond my soul but I digress!

In the end, I’ve gotten my beloved DAWGS back….now with much better clarity–
plus I’ve gotten Britbox and ACORN tv…meaning I can see my favorite old British TV
mysteries without having to use Dad’s old CD’s..

And thus I offer you a reboot from the past.
A post about a Foyle’s War episode…….

Having been a baby boomer, I never knew what it was like living during a time of deprivation like those who lived through the lean times of the Depression
or a world war.
I have not had to live with ration stamps, food shortages, or overt sacrifice for the greater good during a time of grave uncertainty and an all consuming war of life or death…not like my grandparents or parents who did just that.

So when I watched an episode of Foyle’s War which featured the raffling of a lone
onion, I was both startled and curious.
A raffle for a prized onion?
An onion?

Foyle’s War was a marvelous British TV Drama that came out in 2002.
The series was set in Hastings, East Sussex in England during WWII and
follows the life and trials of a local police inspector,
Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle
(Michael Kitchen) along with his small team of assistants.
Foyle works the home front, doing his best to maintain order during a time of
worldly chaos.

Dad introduced me to the series years ago when he gave me a boxed set—
I was quickly hooked.
It is historically accurate, well done and rich in cinematography with great
story lines, accompanied by consummate actors.
I think it is the historical war aspect that had me hooked.

During this one particular episode concerning the onion, the episode Nothing Fancy,
the police office was raffling off a large onion.
DCS Foyle’s assistant Sam Wainwright, is seen to pine over the onion
hoping, or better yet almost salivating,
that she might actually be able to win such a treasure.

Now granted the onion was just a bit of side story to the main plot
of murder, mystery and mayhem but yet I kept thinking how odd it was that an
unassuming onion should be raffled off.
And odder still was the fact that everyone really wanted to win.

It was just an onion for heaven’s sake.
But what I hadn’t grasped was the fact that things such as fresh vegetables,
during a raging world war, while living on an isolated Island such as England,
were a rare treasure.

Not because an onion by itself is considered nutritious, exotic or of real value..
but when you have had to live a life of deprivation, existing on ration stamps,
struggling through food shortages…
adding to the fact that most fresh foods were sent directly to the front lines
to provide the best for those fighting the war….
the act of eating was no longer something for pleasure but was for pure survival…
having a small gift of flavor was almost too good to be true.

Variety, flavor and flare were the first casualties as such luxuries
are quickly sacrificed.

If you cook, or know anything about cooking, then you fully grasp the fact that
things such as onions are often taken for granted….
yet they are the subtle key players, hanging out in the background, who are greatly necessary in cooking as they add a depth and complexity to food.

Onions add a variety of flavors pure and simple.
They take bland to an entire new level of taste…
be it sweet and smokey, spicy and hot, caramely and soft,
or they simply add texture and crunch…
Onions are a key ingredient to any savory meal.

So naturally I considered what my life would be without something equally as
necessary yet something that seems to be usually in the background,
something seemingly humble and most often taken for granted….
as in the thought that it will always be there…
Something that, should it be lost or that I should be deprived
of such would be, in a word, catastrophic….

For me, that would be a death without hope…
which is what a life would be without the real presence of God the Father,
the hope of Salvation found in Jesus Christ the Son and the
everlasting guidance of the Holy Spirit.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,
which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away,
nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
2 Colossians 13-15

I just wanted to give you flowers!

“The sunflower is mine, in a way.
I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers.”
Vincent van Gogh

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

On the way home from an apple orchard (tis the picking season),
I spied the most beautiful bit of scenery.

For as far as the eye could see… stood rows upon rows of sunflowers…
thousands of flowers literally basking in the warmth of an early October
afternoon’s sun.
Sunflowers of every shape, size and glorious array of color.

Perched by the field was am unassuming roadside market advertising that folks could
walk the fields, cutting their own bouquet.

It truly a beautiful site that I wanted to share with you!

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

(sunflowers the 1st of October / Julie Cook / 2023)

How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24

what are the odds???

“O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!”
William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“With every mistake, we must surely be learning.”
George Harrison

(my daily visitors / Julie Cook / 2023)

I’ve decided I want to write a book.

Well…maybe that should read ‘I’ve decided I NEED to write a book’.

And if I’m being really truthful about the matter, I should say I decided long ago
I wanted to write a book…but as I’ve aged, I’ve discovered that the
topics, subjects and plots are constantly changing, evolving or simply
existing in a state of perpetual flux.
A most difficult conundrum to pin down.

And thus sitting down to write said book, let alone deciding what it is I’m to be
writing about, is never quite clear.
There’s really simply just too much to choose from!

Take the other day.

I bought a new weed eater…and as it is that I live perched on the side of
a mountain in the middle of the woods….things around me are constantly needing to be
weeded, trimmed, cut, maintained…

I have to work very hard at making it look as if a human being actually lives here
and that I am not a prepper hiding out in some remote camouflaged wilderness…
not that I’m disparaging peppers mind you…it’s just that I need to tame
the world around me…a world that has lived here long before I ever came along.
Simply put, I must work very hard to strike a balance of my coexisting with
that of my surroundings.

For instance, take the undergrowth on the back bank…

It is difficult at best to fend it all off from encroaching onto
the path that leads around to the back of the house.

Weeds, saplings, vines, brambles, sprouts—a giant hot mess.

And as things have grown thick and dense, I fear many creatures are finding
homes very near my own.
I need to have separation!
They must have their area as I must have mine!

Did I mention that this back bank is also extremely steep?

There’s no working from the top down.
Tumbling, slipping and / or falling are very real.

And so it was that the other afternoon I donned my trusty weed eater while
doing my best to clear away some of the madness.

Remember me telling you how I had gotten this cool app for my phone called
“Picture This”??
You can snap a pic of a tree, flower, plant, seed, bark, nut etc…
and it will tell you what it is.

Well, sitting right off the edge of the bank, there’s this tree-like thing sprouting upward
out of the madness.
Day after day I have watched this “thing” grow taller and wider with each passing minute…
mocking me with its rapid growth in a place where it was certainly not wanted
as it defiantly sat just out of reach.

At first I thought it was a mimosa tree in the making.
Yet I knew it was more weedy than desirable.
Think trash tree or some invasive mess vs a sourwood or sugar maple.
It was out of place and not welcomed.

I couldn’t reach the blasted thing with the weed eater, let alone chainsaw.
I couldn’t swing down the bank far enough to whack it or hack it into oblivion.
I knew enough to know it didn’t belong and I knew it had to go!

And so as I have so aptly learned– desperate times require desperate measures…
I grabbed a pole saw that the previous home owners had left behind.

Perched just ever so gingerly on the edge of the bank, I reached out ever so carefully
with the extended pole saw. The pole was just long enough for me to cut the six protruding stalks.
And that’s when I smelled it.
With the first cut, there was a most pungent aroma lofting upward.

Gees louise…what the …..????

This thing stunk to high heaven.

I immediately thought SNAKES???

Is this smell from snakes???
I’ve read that if you smell something like a cucumber
there are copperheads nearby…
Yet undeterred, I continued overreaching and cutting…
cutting until all stalks were toast. Using the pole to push the fallen stalks further down
the bank down into the tangled abyss of vegetation.

Only slipping once, I eventually surrendered knowing that I was literally one foot
ahead of the game and should take the small victory I had been given…
death to a trash tree.

It was a few days later when I saw a similar tree perched in a weedy overgrowth patch along
the side of the road.
I stopped to snap a quick picture using my app.

It appears that the tree is called the Tree of Heaven…
“Oh Good Lord”, I thought, I chopped down Heaven?!
Only I could cut down Heaven’s tree…

Yet as I continued reading, it seems that the tree is also known as
the Tree from Hell….

Now that makes more sense…

It’s also known as the Stinky Sumac….hence the stench when being cut.

It is an invasive tree from….wait for it…China.

Oh what are the odds?
The irony of my angst.

And so opting to leave the bank to more trained professionals, I decided to
tackle something a bit more doable…something not involving
my demise nor that of either Heaven and Hell…I decided to clean the oven.

Removing the oven’s racks before turning on the cleaning, cycle as directed by the
manual, I put the racks out on the back patio in order to clean them separately
once the oven was situated.

As I headed out to work on the racks, to my shock, it seems as if some of my
neighbors found the racks before I did…

What are the odds???

And thus we have the title for the book…”What are the Odd?”

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Philippians 4:6, NIV