Weather Warnings, perspectives, brewing thoughts

This is a test, this is only a test...

In the event of an acutal blog posting, you would have heard a distinct code (that only we know what it distincts) and it would have told you what to do...

(I always loved those things, as a kid you'd be like 'aaaaaaaaieee')

What was funny, (well, not Ha-Ha funny,) was how when I used to live in the hills and hollers of upstate NY, the emergency broadcast system actually was quite useful, (I mean, you couldn't see the sky that well, it was all trees...) and some wild honkin' storm could be bearing down on you... (which it often was.)

To be honest, I miss those days...
Weather is such a wonderful thing... and the mix ups of seasons sort of enhances and provides this kind of understanding of time that is TOTALLY missing from Central California...

Anyway...

Not sure how many folks are going to be reading this particular blog...
I'm going to leave it open (I think,) and so far I have a number of subjects that I'm leaning towards specifically on 'God' issues.

It's been an extremely couple of weeks, actually in that department.

Which, personally, as maddening as it is...
I happen to like.
(Hmmm, maybe the weather theme is good to stay with... especially heavy weather.)

What I'm sort of forming up is:

-Here in Fresno, there's this attitude that nothing ever happens, and nothing ever really changes, (heck, there was even an earthquake down the state a couple of days ago... My younger brother was assured by one of his customers (both of them in the NYC region)
'...Relax, you're brother is safe, the Earthquake was in California, and he's not in California, he's in Fresno...'

How true, How true...

There is also this saying I'd hear around church circles:
'...The pressing things are rarely that important, and the Important things are rarely that pressing...'

Which sort of goes to another kind of thing (aside from circular reasoning... which I think is a poetic way to say stuff, ---but don't bet the farm on it...)


Among the various observations of life around here, (and it's been nearly three years,) came the views of a friend of mine who was a Canadienne of half Syrian descent... (she wasn't from around here either.) --very very brainy girl... (nice person too... avid bicyclist, nurse... etc.)

Anyway, we were pedalling downtown one day to get something to eat, and I asked her what her impression was of the community here.
'...Largest group of people to have unbelievably strong opinions, --yet not know anything about the subject, ---yet STILL have strong opinions, I've ever seen...'

It sort of looses it's magic when you don't understand the setting.

Her response to the question was totally from the hip, she didn't even think twice, (no, she was not looking to be nasty,) and we were both riding through an intersection barrelling along, ---and there wasn't a whole lot of 'theory,' going into it...

I wonder about that...

I mean, it is true, (to a great extent.)
---but at risk of either (a.) broadbrushing or (b.) getting so awash in 'trying to see all sides and not offend anyone ---that I have NO real opinion and can come to any conclusions (more as a point of paralysis and 'worry over what others are going to say/think of me,'

I think she had a good point.

Part of it may have been necessary.

This is a very pragmatic area, and summing up, deciding, and proceeding is a requirement of survival, (especially among a people that have relocated and done so using wagons, station wagons, moving vans, --and or-- Lord knows what in the great migration west...

So, there has to be some ability to read the terrain, the situation, the sky, (hmmm, theres' that 'emergency broadcast,' theme again...)

--and prepar for it, know what you're doing, ---and have some sort of reliability to one's own noodle, and one's own abilities.


I suppose one of the deciding factors, would almost be the logic of '...well, you know, in countries where they cut yer hands off for stealing, theft is low...'
(which I don't know is true or not.)

I do know that even among rapists, --cutting that offending body part off does NOT slow them down... (further illustrating that such horrendous acts are not about sexual fulfillment, but enacting anger and physical force upon somebody else... --and using the most base (and horrendous) aspects of onesself (and others) to accomplish brutality...

--But to steer clear from such a volatile subject...

It would seem that even then (remove the body part, remove the crime looking to happen,) --being false,,, --it goes more into where 'intent,' comes from, ---as well as how firmly folks will continue to act out what they want to do, ----despite horrific end results.

Which means, ----the will is unbelievably strong, the actual listening to one's own intellgence (when it's there,) not so strong,,,, we ALREADY know that 'drives,' of a person will challange and defeat all sorts of 'inert,' manners of self-preservation...

And yet...
Down where the real 'us,' is:
--We still treat some things as options, some things as 'non-options,' and often completely ignore what matters most, (or again, put it in some 'options,' box,,, when the dang thing is kind of on fire, or is the gaping hole inside, ---and we sort of feign '...yes, that's the elephant in the room, don't talk about it, ---but we'll acknowledge it...'

And then we fill it with the stupidest things... this stuff that will never really fulfil and satisfy,

And (sillier yet?)
---We glory in the 'mystery,' of it all.

Like there's stuff that 'we're just not supposed to know,' and that there's some sort of 'vastness,' that we're not even going to ever comprehend until way after the third reel of the film, ---and then maybe we'll make it to the other side, ---but then even more vastness, ---and that's the point, (that there isn't one.)

(Does this sound like it's wandering to you???)

Get to know this place.

The land where people have such fierce opinions, allegiance, loyalties, and unlimited and untapped anger ---followed by this insane stubborn clinging to 'the vague.'

Buddha sitting and starving, or eight hundred pounds and laughing himself silly in a restaurant wouldn't even condone this...
---Yet here, ---because so little actually DOES change, ---nearly everything is catagorized as 'optional.'
---And folks will go with ANYTHING as reason and fulfillment, and will love whatever it is that you're into ---so long as you don't think it's 'the truth,'
---and you're allowed to be into something, --and adhere to it religiously, (and they'll admire you for it...) ----just so long as you don't think you're 'onto something,' and 'really have found meaning and a specific hope/cure/answer.'

-Cause then they feel confronted... (This is the land of comparrison afterall..)

'...What makes you think you're right and so special??? HUH???...'

--When (particularly if you start going into something like a belief that is as firm as 'having a relationship with something 'real,' (not some vague '...yeah, I believe in the cosmos...')
But REAL
(say, perhaps as REAL as the opinion or fixation that is being carried like it's the last gallon of water in the county,---and it's 110.)

Present something as 'REAL,'
---and they get all upset...

Yep, float along, listen to the weather warnings on the radio, the sky blackens, and folk's are headed towards this funny line in the water downstream, where on the other side all you see is trees (and there's even a line running across that says 'DANGER DAM,' ---and a few chains dragging in to cling to...

---But the mood du jour (actually the mood de location, (Fresno) is

'...Well, that's Dam for you, but not for me... I reserve the right to think 'Dam,' is what I want...'

Life preservers being thrown by 'arrogant presumptive know it alls,'
Hollering '...grab this...'

The group, enlightened, some of them managing to stand upright on their beer coolers hollering back at the shore:

'...Yeah, grab THIS too buddy...'



We have a lot of work to do...