Tags
Apaches, Charles Grassley, dancing with the stars, evolution, faith, Geronimo, Native Americans, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, SCOTUS
Spring is a wonderful time of the year. I have more energy than usual, and I seem to get out of my normal lethargy and get motivated to do stuff. I guess that has something to do with the idea that spring seems to be a time of hope and promise.
In the fall, it changes, it’s just depressing, with winter beckoning. I hate the stuff to prepare for it. It seems like I’m giving in, and I rebel and tend to vegetate.
So that means, I’m busy as all get out these days, and feeling pretty darn good about it. Yesterday to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I cooked up a storm. We had chicken enchiladas verdes as the main dish. I used fresh tomatilloes for the sauce. It turned out really well. I made side dishes of refried beans and Spanish rice.
I’m reading two books, one for review here, and another for our adult forum class at church. I’m doing the outdoor stuff here and there, but the Contrarian seems to be doing the bulk of that so far. I’m working on the church library, and also preparing a short talk on the recent same-sex legal opinion for another forum we are scheduling for the end of the month. Again at church. I’m also trying to read a full issue from the Anglican Theological Review on homosexuality. I’m reading a lot it seems.
I seem to be cooking a bit more extravagantly than usual for some reason. I’m trying to knit a spring shawl but probably won’t get it done until fall at the rate I’m going. I am meeting with a soul mate (spiritual buddies) and trying to keep up an e-mail conversation and not doing that very well. I’m trying to post most days, and keep up on reading blogs. I’m trying to keep my housework up and do the laundry timely. I’m trying to be a decent wife since my wonderful husband deserves that. I’m trying not to neglect the pets and remember they need personal attention every day too.
I’m just like you, but you probably have way more to do than me. Funny, I don’t feel especially stressed, just busy. Anyway, today is just bits and pieces. So lets get on with it.
We saw American Experience last night on PBS. We had taped it I think from Sunday. They are doing a multi-part series on Native Americans. We saw part four, having somehow missed the first three I guess. Hopefully we can find them in reruns later in the summer. This one was on Geronimo. It was excellent as you might expect.
Geronimo was as they pointed out, a “complex” man. Some of what he did was no doubt quite good. Some of it not so good. What was done to Native Americans in this country is simply inexcusable. Plainly. No excuse will ever be made, although plenty of explanations are given. Another oops, we lost our moral compass event. He is third from the left in the picture above, by the way.
I feel some affinity for Native peoples. There is a rumor that someone in my distant family past was married to a native woman. So I may have some genetic connection. I doubt that explains it though. I have the same sense of connection with Hispanics too. Can’t explain that either. I think it’s some spiritual resonance with the cultures.
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A few days ago, I posted a rant on why we have turned the idea around that when people do bad things to us, we have license somehow to do the same. It’s now okay, we are absolved somehow from moral responsibility for doing wrong. I ran into another couple of examples since then.
One is Charles Grassley, our Senator from Iowa. He was quite public some time ago, under the Bush administration with saying that filibuster was just wrong period. Now, with a Democratic choice to replace Souter on the SCOTUS, Grassley is claiming that the Rethugs must try it, since the “the other side did it.”
Last night in watching the thing on Geronimo, I learned that some of the first white men (and it was mostly white men) to enter the southwest (after the Spanish Conquistadores of course) were rather lawless unprincipled gold seekers, heading for California. They slaughtered Apaches in rather unspeakable ways for sport it seems. This prompted Geronimo to do the same, and this was considered by at least one Native American apologist as okay, since “the other side did it.”
So I guess things don’t change much, and that kind of thinking has been around longer than I might have thought.
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Dancing with the Stars just sucks. I’m disgusted. Last night the “voters” meaning the public who cares to vote, voted off “lil Kim.” She was one of the top three dancers to be sure. They kept the cowboy, (sorry, don’t know his name, but he’s married to Jewel if that helps). He is arguably the nicest person in the world, and has improved dramatically, but he really can’t dance. They have to revamp the voting and limit it to the two lowest from the professional judging numbers. That’s the only way its worth watching.
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It seems every day there is another joke to laugh about regarding the Republicans. Rush Limbaugh says that Sarah Palin is the prominent and “articulate” spokesman of the party. I mean what more can one say? It seems almost wrong to state the obvious. This from a woman who looks out her window to look for Putin on the horizon. Who is made speechless by a simply question: “What magazines and newspapers do you read?” Enough said. I used to have a couple of humor sites I went to every day. Now I just gotta look for a quote from virtually any Republican to get my chuckles. Enough said.
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The Pew group runs a forum on Ethics and Public policy. It sets up a meeting every six months and has done so for decades now. A believer, and head of the genome project, and speaker at the forum, Francis Collins has a new site you should look at called: The Biologos Foundation. It’s dedicated to “finding harmony in faith and science.” It’s more than worth taking a look at. I’ll have their blog linked under the science category on the sidebar.
Existential Ennui 
I’m having a feast, catching up on reading your blog posts. I attended our NW Catholic Women’s Convocation — a wonderful event — and haven’t been reading any blogs for a few days.
Welcome back Kedda. Hope you had a wonderful time!
I feel much the same as you. I am busy all the time and have stuff to do. It just seems to happen naturally during Spring as more and more light becomes available to us. More light=do more stuff I think.
Oh yeah, about Native Americans. I’m part Cherokee and Irish, Norwegian, and what all else on the white side I don’t rightly know. Mom said we were a Heinz 57 as I was growing up. I don’t feel completely white and I don’t feel like an Indian either–I’m stuck between both worlds is how I often feel. People say I look ethnic and ask me where I’m from. I tell them I’m from America. Where are they from?
Love your post’s title, and the post, too…..and, that rendition of Mt. Rushmore. I may swipe it to keep.
I watched one of those AE episodes last week, I think…..it was a show about Native Americans, anyway, on PBS. So very interesting. I’m always intrigued by their respect for the land and nature. We whites came in and tromped all over everything, including their sacred places. The older I get, the more it bothers me.
You have many irons in the fire. Enjoy all the busyness!
lib: yep, I think its that there is more light, so we go at it longer. I know I’m starting to get up a bit earlier, and it seems that I can always squeeze in something a bit later than usual.
I can’t claim that I’ve ever felt caught between cultures. I’m pretty much plain english/french/canadian boring! lol
Jeannelle, I love the American Experience shows. They have all be excellent. And I know what you mean, the older I get the less tolerate and more outraged I become at how whites literally swept over the land like it was some entitlement. I guess it was the prevailing sociology of the time. It was ugly.
Crackers are still doing it, only the methods have changed. Why kill so many when you can own their ass financially?