random thoughts

Hi Maggie,

Hope all is well.

I worked a long day today, then had a hard time pushing my butt out the door to walk.  But I did it.  I am trying to get past this...hummmmm...to - I walk every day - that's just what I do.

I have some random thoughts to release here.  More strange thoughts from my strange mind, I guess...

A dear friend bought a cottage at the next lake over, and invited some of us over for a barbecue on Sunday. It was so nice to sit and relax and watch the water.  I had, once again, a feeling of the femininity of the water. Suddenly I understood why Latin languages use gendered articles.  When I learned Spanish I had such a hard time with the concept of a window being female.  I had to do a lot of memorizing. It didn't make sense to my Saxon influenced brain. But being outside, with the lake, I could sense masculinity and femininity.  I think the southern people, who lived intimately with the Mediterranean also understood/understand.

Also, I have been watching a lot of videos of the Syrian refugees reaching Germany.  They are greeted with welcoming cheers, and every single time I start to cry. I am not sure why I am so emotionally connected to this story.  I read a little about the history, about the Arab Spring, about people asking for freedom, of the brutality used to keep them in slavery.

When there is an awful leader in the world, why does the rest of the world simply accept it?  I am also thinking of Cheney.  What responsibility do we have? Turning our back on the bullies, even if we tsk-tsk and say they're bad - we allow the brutality to continue.

Anyway I have been crying a lot...

I also watched a video of some animals rescued from industrial farms.  I saw them take their first steps on grass. I saw chickens able to stretch their wings for the first time. I thought they were rescued from slavery for a lesser degree of slavery. They are fenced in and controlled - granted it is done with kindness - yet they are not free. They are owned by someone.

We seem to be able to put levels of slavery on a spectrum, and make some rough decisions about what it okay, what is not...what is ethical, what is cruel.  But we never ask the basic question - can sentient entities be owned?

It sort of loops back to people escaping from Syria, from brutality, to European countries where they will have to work or file with the government, to be labeled and identified and told where and how they must live. It's still slavery, but we are so grateful because it is not as brutal...

We are all slaves, whether we see the master or not. We don't have any more freedom than the pigs in farrow crates who can not turn over.

It's not supposed to be this way...

Lots to chew on...

Love and hugs from Clare