So, there are some folks in the world who consider themselves - members of the "elite few".  They have so much and they think they deserve this.  Likewise and further, they think those who have so little deserve their suffering fate.  This is delusional and demented thinking of the worst sort if you want my opinion, yet this distorted individual thought process has been around for so long amongst members of the "human species" - particularly those who were born into and/or lucked into privilege (you know the "eye of the needlers").  I consider it the mark of a weak and hateful mind with no compassion for life.   It is selfish, self-centered, hateful, harmful, and goes against the laws of nature that we ought be able to recognize in both small-scale ways and beyond.  Nature favors cooperation for it leads to splendid optimization, and humanity ought be smart enough to recognize this - individually and collectively.  Otherwise, seems to me we are nothing but a killer species whose time has come.  Sorry (sort of) to be so blatant about it, but just today (51010) these self-considered elite few continue to raise the stakes (fiscally and in other ways), and this is a warning to these specific individuals that your days are numbered.   Plus, I have a simple probing question:  Are you self-annointed elite few unable to learn?  If so, I must say, I suspect you are already dying as I type this - in fact, you may already be dead.  For if you refuse to learn, then you might as well be dead.  What good are you if you have nothing left to learn?  What do you have to offer for others besides your own self-fulfilling dogma?  These are fair questions from someone who tries to learn each and every moment of each and every day.

These elite few who ascribe to this thought process like to imagine ideas that justify (rationalize) in their mind their own supposed superiority.  Take "John Calvin" for instance - he had the audacity to perpetuate the concept of "predestiny" -  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination )  as if a mere human could know "Gods" mind.  Can anyone know "Gods mind" - apparently Calvin thought so.  How convenient this thought process must be for those few who already have so much.  Heartless is what this makes them in MY mind, because what it seems to be, really, is a convenient excuse to treat others with disdain because "it was meant to be that way in the first place".  Thus, this makes it so easy for "them" to overlook the suffering of others and is a most dangerous self-fulfilling way of thinking.  One that leads to outright mayhem.    

Here is what I think - if you think you are a member of the elite few (I know I sure enough ain't), and you think this puts you above all others who have so much less, and you think this is the natural order of "things", then you are fixing to get some personal and directed comuppance.  You know - discrete and selective justified retribution.  Because, lets be honest for a moment:  (1) Did the Creator not create us all?  (2) Do you think any Creator relishes in the suffering of that which was created?  (3) Do you think your supposed superiority permits you to cause so much harm to all life?  Did the Creator not create all life?  Please, get over yourselves you sick and twisted self-annointed psychopaths, or I suspect you are gonna get to sense personal, up-close, and final justified retribution.  Any creator who abides ongoing and relentless suffering of that which was created for the benefit of a "few", is no creator of mine, but rather a fabrication created in the imagination of sick minds whose days are coming to a final and discriminate END.  Myself, I care about all People (All People), and furthermore, I proclaim no harmful intent.  What about you?

Not so long ago, making things we needed to get through the day entailed much hard work and often help from the neighbors during certain times of the year.  Nowadays, at least here in the gool ole US of A, so much is so readily available, but I'm not so sure this is a good thing.  It seems we take too much for granted and I think so many have become so disconnected.  Plus, we don't make nearly as much here as we used to - we let the "ants" elsewhere make it, and we act like a bunch of grasshoppers who are unaware of the winter's coming.  Frankly, I'd rather be an ant than a grasshopper.  I make wine and beer from the basic ingredients and I have a veggie garden and I enjoy these things, but sadly, I can't really "make a living" of this.  At least here in the good ole US of A living on a 0.5 acre plot of suburban land in the year of 2010. 

At one time I thought that if we could go back in time (which we can't except perhaps in imagination), that a decent time to go back to would have been ~1830.  Just before the railroads got going in earnest.  Just before all of the fighting in Tejas.  Just before the Native People's "got the boot" would have been best.  See I don't think the railroads should have been the enterprise of a "few" who inevitably turned into "Robber Barons" (sort of like todays bankers).  Nor do I think what went down in Tejas was all that fair.  And, lastly, but I suspect most importantly, I don't think the "Native People's" should have been removed from their homelands, for this was not the act of an enlightened nation.  Some in Congress shared this view for the debate was acrimonious, but Andrew Jackson (supposed "Man of the People") went along with those who favored relocation, and the rest is history.  Pillaging, plundering, enslaving, and relocating are paths of least resistance, but they create serious and long-lived negative Karma, and Karma always circles around for the sake of balance.  Recognition that mistakes were made and genuine striving to do better can I suspect influence how "Karma" plays out, but this is just my supposition premised I reckon on the need for hope.  I think what really makes the difference is whether or not there has been any "genuine learning" based upon honest retrospection.  If not, then Karma teaches hard lessons that need to be taught.  Seems this way to me.  Also seems obvious to me that the "Karmic lessons" of today have reached an unprecedented level - epic you could say.  Epic in the extreme.  Life and Death in the balance for just about all of us.  Big-time.  You know - a precipice.  A possible cliff for lemmings or a possible rock wall to be climbed for the sake of enlightenment.  Do or die time - one for all and all for one. 

Well, enough of this "deep talk", because some lessons cannot be readily taught.  As Anthony Hope said:  "Understanding is a great experience in itself, but it does not come through instruction".  Making maple syrup on the other hand can be learned through instruction, and so below is an old-fashioned recipe. 

The top picture above was taken awhile ago because one of the birds (the one higher up) is now dead.

Peak-a-boo was this birds name.  The other bird is named Frosty and we still have her.  She is very annoying sometimes (screech, screech, screech), but she is still part of our home and we love her for this reason.  In fact, just a few weeks ago Frosty first "dropped" an egg, then she layed one or two I think.  Unfertilized unfortuantely because our other bird, "Lacy", is just way to big for Frosty.  Peak-a-boo wasn't, but he is dead.  He got "plucked" - literally.  I saw it first-hand and I made a poem about that experience.  I'll tell you this, when I first saw Peak-a-boo, I literally slumped to the floor, but I held myself together despite the fact that I knew Peak-a-boo was gonna die.

But afterwards, I performed a ceremony in Peak-a-boo's honor, and I will never forget that bird.  Never.

OK, this is gonna seem weird or kooky or quirky or what you will, but this is what I think.

I think that I am in love with so many things.  But just because I have this love doesn't mean others share the sentiment.  So this is obvious and this is also why I like the neighborhood that I live in......like just today, I was walking Abby-Mia, and she as usual was being a tad difficult, but she does this on purpose to keep me on my toes, and I like it.  So anyhow, we were walking and having some good neighborhood fun and we saw a nice nieghbor drive by, and this was pleasant to both Abby and me.  Then we sat on some benches (or was that before....no it was after after all), and Abby got uncomfortable during these moments, but should I expect otherwise? - I didn't because I know my dog Abby-Mia, and she knows me as well.  There is beauty in this sort of thing and if you can't sense it, then there is not much more I can say for your benefit.  If you can, then please listen to me.....I have more to say, and I plan on talking with you.  Personally.  Face to face.

In fact just today I decided in my own mind that there will be a conference around the table that resides just now in my office.  I am looking forward to this and I have already made preparations.  I plan ahead.

OK, so there you have it once again, and I know this is easy to say, but really, you have the scoop on me, so now what are you gonna do with it?