Animal Instincts

Salty streaming streaks 

Blood, sweat and tears attract more

hungry predators.

Perspective

As a little girl I grew up in a tiny farming community, 2 bars, 5 churches, a grocery store, more cattle than people, bad reception on the 2 channels we felt lucky to get, and unpaved streets.  We learned to entertain ourselves, or clean, Grandma liked things tidy, so it should come as no surprise that I found myself in the back of my closet

I spent hours there, my secret room, I'd never read CS Lewis, we were fed a heavy dose of Psalms and the new testament, often quoted carefully verbatim by memory from my sainted Grandmother.  Quiet, cool, safe from all my handlers, I entertained myself for hours in my secret fortress, occasionally coming out long enough to draw on the walls tormented scenes of cemetaries that my mother treated as art leaving it there years after I had left.  Many a great adventure happened there, the world never knew how many times I saved it, because according to Grandma a good deed should never be discussed it should be carried out.  Indeed, we should beware of anyone who felt the need to declare who they were. 

School started, and I made a friend that lived nearby.  I invited her over, excited to share my secret fortress.  I guided her into the house, steering her carefully into my secret room, excited that she would find it as entertaining as I had.  She saw was the back of a closet.

Years later, I bought a home in Alaska, built a lovely deck around it and began encouraging the birds and squirrels to entertain me with seeds and kernels.  Excited, I pointed out to my friend how many things were enjoying the fruits of my bounty from the yard and on the deck.  He saw was the bird poop.

The moral to this story:   Share your secrets at your own risk. 

Good Friday (the Reality of Id)

Your over active mind can't take the time
to separate fact from fiction.
You use diction to blur,
the slur of your imagination.
God didn't mean for creation
to be tearing itself apart,
broken hearts, minds, and lives in pieces.
All is lost, nothing found
when we refuse to recognize
our reflection in the mirror and fear to see the bigotry
in our preconceived ideas of reality.

Is it Hell or is it Heaven?
when the self righteous finds himself
soul to soul
christian, buddhist, muslim, pagan, non believer,
and all God faces laughing
echoing through the ages
Sages stare in wonder
as his voice thunders,

"Did no man understand?
Judge not!  Judge not!
Have Faith!
No man shall know the time,
the place, the very face of God
All is mine and made in my image
the human race of God
The faith of God
The joke of God
Can you hear the laughter?"

Ever after, laughter,
ever after....

Amen

The things you'd rather not discuss but should

Well, how do you start something like this but to say I am a hypocrite.  After years of pontificating on the dangers of drinking and driving I was charged and convicted of a DUI.  I am sharing this information NOT because I am proud of what has happened at the most stressful point of my life, but so that if it happens to you you will be AWARE.

First and for most KNOW that if you have been drinking that IF you are charged with a BAC, (blood alcohol content), of .08 or more that you will most likely be charged with a DUI, (Driving Under the Influence).  There is NO negotiation on a first time DUI offense in California, so save yourself the $2500 (or more) charge of hiring a lawyer and plan on attending all your court appearances on time and expecting to stay most of the day.  If you are lucky enough that YOUR time is more than the expense of the lawyer make your own choice.

Note that at some point you will have to appear in front of the judge and be sentenced.

Here are my notes from the experience:

1. You have ten days to apply to the DMV for the right to obtain a restricted license during your   education process if you fail to apply for this privilege you will be denied the right to drive for a minimum of 4 months.    EVEN with this privilege  you will be denied the right to drive for a minimum of 30 days. 
2. If you fail to appear at any of your mandated court appearances you will have a warrant issued for your arrest
3. You will have to attend traffic school and it will cost you in time and money in accordance to your BAC.  
4. Embrace the experience of traffic school.  You have to go, you have no choice,  IT IS A PROCESS and your restricted license only lasts so long.  Most of the things you'll learn won't kill you to know and may enlighten even the most cosmopolitan types.  KNOW that any missed activities will add to your cost.  Just go, get it done, and don't let it happen again because the cost and the hours increase significantly.  There were plenty of folk that did not get the point the first time and were in class as repeat offenders.  It appeared to me that the longer you went the more bitter you became.