soloing

Maggie's On the Road Again, just can't wait to get on the road again...(Willie Nelson) and so I am All By Myself, don't wanna be all by myself anymore...(Eric Carmen).  So I get to sing alone today!

I had a conversation this morning that has stayed with me.  Are humans intrinsically good or intrinsically bad?  Are we evolving to something that is better and kinder and gentler?  Or are we devolving into something less intelligent, less kind?  And I will add, less connected?

My conversational partner thinks that our culture is becoming richer and that we are becoming something more, something better as a species.  I think that if we continue on the path we're on - or the majority of us are on - we are going to disappear completely into chaos only controlled by slavery.  We will be owned by our possessions and our institutions.  My conversational partner feels that we have come a long way from being animals.  I think we have simply forgotten that we are animals.

Animals don't kill except to eat.  Most animals will not kill their own species.  I've mentioned Dave Grossman before, the writer who submits that for the most part, humans won't kill their own kind either.  But in the presence of violent brainwashing, we can be tricked into overcoming our humanity and kill - for no reason.  We can also be convinced that some of our own are not human, making it even easier to kill.  It is human to defend what we treasure.   That is also played against us.

Animals don't torture their babies.  Remember when my dog had puppies in the car?  Some of them chilled, and she stopped taking care of them.  I was distraught, but a dog expert explained that she was simply putting her energy into the pups that would survive.  She did not hit them or rape them.  She simply nurtured life.  When I warmed them, she licked them and took them back.  Her instinct let her know the pup would survive.  Perhaps in our attempt to distance ourselves from our animal self, we have abandoned instinct.  It is instinctual to tend our young.

Animals recognize and respect boundaries.  If the population grows and there is pressure, they will fight for dominance.  But they don't fight to the death - like we do.

I think I idolize the indigenous people, and I know they weren't perfect.  I know there was violence, but the basic culture was humane.  Men and women led equally.  Boundaries were recognized and respected.  Warriors defended, there was no such thing as preemptive war.  Rape was unheard of - probably because men and women led together.  Children were not taught by physical violence.  But this dominant culture destroyed and replaced that culture.  And this culture is destroying our humanity.

Our culture - I get so sick of our Spare the rod mentality.  I imagine that phrase came from the image of Christ as a Good Shepherd.  Consider a sheep going astray, getting caught in brambles.  Can you imagine a Christ-like peaceful figure beating the sheep?  That would drive them deeper into the thicket.  The shepherds crook was made to gently catch the sheep and back it out out the thorns.  The rod sets boundaries, directs.  It is not a weapon designed to abuse sheep or children.

So I'm blathering.  I think I will get on with my day.  I think we are taking little ones to the town fair, then they may stay overnight here.

Soloing - I like to sing, but I dream of soloing in a sailboat.  The fact that I have never sailed doesn't phase me in the least!!  The image of sailing on a swamp came unbidden to my brain.  That would not work.  I think I must leave my swamp in order to sail.  Maybe we're like salmon, we are supposed to leave, then come home when it's time...we weren't supposed to sit here, hiding, for all of these years...

Safe travels dear ones.

Love, Clare