For my own mental health, I have been on a short break. You must step back from the fray occasionally, breathe, enjoy life, re-connect with loved ones, re-connect with nature, re-examine your thoughts, experiences, and beliefs; basically calm your thoughts and re-center you! At least, I need to do that; I don’t think I’m alone in that regard. I have tried to avoid the constant barrage of news of the latest insults to our constitution by our leaders. I have tried to avoid the constant drama of religion forcing itself into every walk of life. I’ve tried to avoid news of the increasingly dire predictions of continuing global climate change.
I have instead enjoyed the coming of spring, the robins, the hummingbirds; the greening of the woods surrounding us, the gardens blossoming and just yesterday, the blooming of the first peonies. The fleabane has been blooming for a while, as have the wild blue violets. We seem to have lost some of the main dogbane patch because of the bumper crop of dogbane beetles last year (they’re beautiful, but their nymphs eat the roots, instead of only the leaves). The purple bearded iris is also in bloom, and the various milkweeds are coming up. The deer killed more of the sumac patch, but some survived — it’s just going to take longer for it to mature than I expected when I planted it. There was nothing in the literature about deer liking to rub against it in early spring enough to strip its bark! That was a surprise to find last year. We’ve restarted the aeration in the pond. The fish seem to have wintered well, and there were at least 2 frogs (I think American bullfrogs) in the pond yesterday. A few weeks ago, I saw a groundhog drinking from the back edge of the pond, and just last week Tazi was barking his head off because he’d surprised a young groundhog on the deck-side bank hummingbird garden (yes, the monarda is coming up well, the white turtlehead not doing as well, unfortunately). Anyway, Taz came when called and the groundhog moved on after about 20 minutes or so. It chose not to leave immediately, and I couldn’t coax it to move on; we just let it be so it could move on when it had recovered from the encounter (its eyes were huge with fright, whites showing, when I left it). Did you know they “hiss” and “charge” a bit? I didn’t until that day. Normally they waddle away long before we get near them. I was concerned Taz would get himself bitten — he is not a bright dog — but very sweet and loving, and comes when called — the most important thing right then!
I have wandered around YouTube a bit and found that some people actually believe the earth is flat!! There are several flat earth posters, as well as a couple even more odd ones (something about a cosmic egg?? and/or our civilization is built on top of a civilization buried by a mud-flood?? and/or there’s another planet (Nebu I think it was) orbiting earth so close we can see its clouds and atmosphere??); that was really surprising to me. Of course, the earth is the center of the universe and the “heliocentric model” is just a conspiracy foisted on the populous by “them”… just amazing. There are an incredible number of science deniers of all sorts posting on YouTube, and a fair number of science responders as well. I must say, they have far more patience than I. An example is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvfxRY12_I8 . I thought this one was just plain funny, though it hurt my brain to watch and listen to it.
One of my regular YouTube channels is Freedom From Religion Foundation. This post of October, 2018 is among my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crn1T3Ynx2U . It is discussing the opening paragaphs of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, where Dawkins describes the “god” of the Old Testament as “the most unpleasant character in all of fiction”. I read Dawkins’ book a good while ago, but Dan Barker had written a follow-up that I wasn’t aware of. I ordered it today. You can get more info on Dan by clicking his name on YouTube or from FFRF.org (Freedom From Religion Dot Org), where he is co-president. Dan Barker not to be confused with SciManDan, below.
Above is YouTube channel SciManDan, one of the science responders I enjoy. His regular posts are Tinfoil Tuesdays and Flat Earth Fridays, with an occasional odd one posted in between. Even though he’s a Brit, he’s sometimes very funny. Enjoy!
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