I don’t always wind up with topics that I can write forever on. For those, I usually set them to the side and wait to see if anything further can germinate. Sometimes it does, most of the time it doesn’t. When I get enough of these little topics or talking points – I eventually make a post like this, just a bunch of hits and pieces.

Personal Spirituality

I catch all kinds of the Nine Hells over the fact that I work with two Native American Gods. I completely grok the perspective of cultural theft, but neither Crow nor Coyote have expectations of me trying to become a part of the People. Nor do They have any expectations of me becoming a Medicine Man or some form of tribal Shaman. In fact, neither have the expectation of me joining or working with a tribe. My Path with Them was made very clear. The only intersection I have with Native American traditions are these two Gods. My working with Them is not to become part of the People. My Path is to be who I am and work directly with Them for guidance, direction, and to be Their “worker” (that’s a horrible descriptive, but that is about as close as I can get) for what They request and require of me. I try not to become unhinged at those who aim the cultural theft descriptive at me. After all, they don’t walk my Path. Nor do I walk theirs. I just worry about my footsteps, especially when the Path leads me out onto a narrow ledge. I even wrote a blog post over this quite a while back…

Statues and the Confederacy

All over the news are stories about various statues being pulled down, vandalized or destroyed. I completely understand the anger towards symbols such as these, especially those that were erected here in the southern tier of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Most of these were built as a subtle reminder to the generations of slaves and their children and grandchildren, just what their place in society was meant to be: Free but Unequal. I am one of those that does not want to see the statues destroyed but placed in more appropriate settings – such as museums, where context can be added in far greater detail. As for the Confederacy, most believe that they were fighting for slavery – and they were to a small extent. The big difference fell on the concept of States’ rights. Slavery was one of the issues that made up that complex ball of issues and started back at the founding of the Nation. The southern states were not content with having issue after issue forced upon them by the more industrialized and populous (remember, representation in Congress was – and still is – determined by population) northern states. By the way, this is an issue that is still held today by the middle-section of the United States, commonly referred to as “flyover country”, as the far more populous states on the East and West coasts continue to dictate aspects of States’ rights. But yes, slavery was a bad thing and it is wrong to hold up the Confederacy as being something worthy of praise. The overall issues that led to the Civil War is far more complicated than the singular perspective of slavery.

Major League Baseball

Anyone that knows me well, realizes very quickly that I am a huge baseball fan. My beloved Cincinnati Reds are not exactly the greatest team on earth and haven’t been very successful for quite some time. Ever since the breakout of the COVID19 pandemic, Major League Baseball has been on hiatus, trying to wait out the pandemic to reach a starting point for the season. This morning, it has been reported that the owners have voted to start the MLB season sometime near the end of July. Yah. Baseball is back. Yes, it seems that I am not enthusiastic about this because I’m not. Surprisingly, I am all for cancelling the entire season, as an abundance of caution. Not just for the players, but also for the umpires, the television crews, the grounds-keeping personnel, and any other workers that would be there. Currently, it sounds like the same would be played without fans in the stands, but should they decide to move forward with that – also for the fans, and all the stadium personnel and concessions workers as well. I just don’t think it is a good idea to do the restart of the country as is currently taking place. Yes, I get it that people need to work to make money to pay their bills….but I’m not for doing so and putting so many lives in danger. Yes, I think it is that bad.

Wear Your Fucking Mask

Which leads me to the last thought of this post from me. Wear. Your. Fucking. Mask. Especially when you are out in public. I hear all the excuses for not wearing one – its stifling to wear, it’s a political message designed to do (x) (whatever you want to dream of), its government control of the people who follow directions blindly, and it doesn’t stop COVID19 spread. Guess what, you’re right. It doesn’t stop the spread of COVID19 one hundred percent. A three-layer cloth mask probably stops COVID19 at a sixty-five to eighty percent rate. But guess what? Not wearing a mask stops COVID19 at a zero percent rate. Personally, I would rather take the more effective measure. Twenty percent rate of infection is far better than one-hundred percent chance. I will continue to wear my various masks. If you’re not willing to do so…awesome. Just realize, I’ll be keeping you at a distance.

And there you go. The scary roller coaster ride through my mind. Told you it wasn’t that bad. It’s about as scary as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. ;)~

— T /|\