The Magnolia Blooms Survived the March Freeze

I think we’re both secretly praying that the neighbors are jealous of the magnolia tree that lives in our back yard. 

At 60 years old it reaches forty feet or more across.  It’s taller than the second story roof.  The blooms have survived a late March freeze, and we should have full bloom in a few days.  The flower bed that you’ve created along the fence line gives new shades of color in two or three week sub-seasons through October.  The white magnolia, though.  The white magnolia.

I imagine with each bloom that I hear a neighbor sigh with jealousy.

The most dangerous man on the planet

I’ve invested hours and hours in this blog  laying out the evidence that our economic turmoil was very much predicted and discussed over the past five or more years in those media sources that had the courage to tell the truth.

Rush Limbaugh was either completely ignorant of the approach of this financial tsunami, or he intentionally deceived his, mostly success minded,  sincere,  well-meaning, generally Christian, and always fervently faithful followers into believing that they had nothing to fear.   The captains of industry and finance go astray and fall off in ones from time to time.  But America and her entrepreneurial leaders always, always do what they know to be in the country’s best economic interest.  Go about your business of earning and winning.  We titans of the Northern Command have it all under control.  You mind your store, I’ll mind mine, Lehman is minding his.  Go forth and prosper. 

While there is evidence of dissent from within the Rush loyals, millions of Americans, it seems, are not willing to connect the dots, step back, take it all in, remove themselves spiritually from the dogma at hand, and say wait a minute!  Wait one x(*&^% minute!

Rush, you either lied to me, or you missed this one.  You, sir, are either a man of pure deceit through and through, or you missed this one.   I believed that you knew what was going on up there at the Northern Command.  I trusted you Rush!   And you either lied to me or you missed this one to the tune of hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of trillions of dollars.   This is bigger than Barney’s sub-prime, Rush.  This is bigger than you Rush.  Your vision was either completely off, Rush.  Or you helped those jackals con me out of my life savings. 

Loyal followers of  a movement, (the Reagan/Rush conservative movement in this case) naturally have a very hard time stepping out of the dogma long enough to let the above paragraph play all the way out in their minds.  They, naturally (in self defense) stop somewhere in the middle and say, “no, no way.”  At this point they get back to the business of their lives  and pursue it no further. 

Tell Rush’s followers that Madoff is a jackal and they will agree at once and display all the normal signs of disgust and revulsion one would expect.  But, if you lay out  just as plainly the facts that Rush cost them 60% of their live savings (through ignorance or deceit one) and they invoke contempt not for Rush but for you.  How dare you assail the prophet of the Northern Command.  

Rush Limbaugh is the most dangerous man on the planet.  He is the leader of a faith based movement that denies both his culpability and his assumed status of  false prophet.

Breakfast on the patio / July

Returned from morning run with j.v at 6:30 this morning anticipating m.a would have breakfast ready on the back patio.  She did.   Ten minutes later we were alone and she was weeding the flower bed on the west side of the patio.  The position of the mid-July sun back-lights hundreds or thousands of insects & spider webs across the entire yard to the east.  She was pulling an herb or some seasoning from the pot to my side.   The smell of the herb lingered in the air around us.   The scent of this herb that I can’t name that variously recalls both summertime salads and wintertime soups being cut up on Sunday mornings by m.a registered differently this morning like lilac out of season.  This scent this morning mixed with the scent of garden dirt, mulch and m.a.   This familiar, warm, scent of nourishment so freely tended to by m.a for me for so many years blended with the scent of my run and of m.a and I was aroused unexpectedly and wanted to give her everything I’m not capable of.

About me…

New Blogger

I am passionate about the spiritual journey, classical music (with a violin concerto fetish), world politics, American politics, fitness and unraveling the social chaos of extreme posturing.  I have  other musical tastes that cut through sections of both rock and dance.  Nirvana rocks.  So does Dvorak.

Come on! Vonnegut isn’t cynical.  Vonnegut so definitively explores the spiritual chaos of personal cynicism that we see through to truth and light.

Ran tonight!

Ran two miles tonight.  Easily had another half mile in me at the end.  In a weak cycle of 2-4 lifting, running or biking sessions per week.  I’m at a 10 year low point on exercise consistency.  3-7 x week is my consistent minimum.  I’m most energetic and productive at 5 or 6 sessions a week.   Trend up.

Discovering Sibelius

Barnes & Noble duped me into a buy two get one free classical music cd purchase about six weeks ago.   I ended up picking up four violin concerto performances by Joshua Bell meaning that my $3.oo coffee cost me a total of $53.oo.   Walking through the second set of doors into the main aisle at Barnes & Noble once felt like going to church.  They haven’t changed, so I suppose that it’s I who have grown less spiritual over the years.   

One of the cds I picked up in May includes the Sibelius violin concerto.  Thank you, Julie, the birth of your son led me to the four hour road trip in late June where the Sibelius finally truly reached me.  It’s been years since I’ve fully processed a new piece the way I’ve come to own this one.  What was it, 2002/2003, when I discovered the Prokofiev concerto?  

Julie, Isac, Tony, Barnes & Noble, Joshua Bell:   All five had to come together for my discovery of Sibelius to be complete.  Peace, love & brotherhood to each of you. 

I just discovered that you can hear the first movement by Christian Ferras on YouTube.  If it reaches you- reaches your soul- , please, go to Barnes & Noble or Amazon.  
For heaven sake go buy a copy.  People devote entire lifetimes developing the skills you’ll hear for free on YouTube.  Please pay them.