Choosing Reality

It seems the right wing likes to cherry pick the science they believe the same way they cherry pick the Bible passages they believe.
 
They use cell phones, cars, and doctors but don't believe in any science that might hurt their pocketbooks. Much the same as they yell about homosexuality and abortion, but it is infidelity that made God's top 10 list.

 #IstandwithBadlands

Jesus

I love Jesus of Nazareth. 

I grew up in the church, a Presbyterian church.  I sang in the choir, joined the youth group, attended the special classes for confirmation and was proudly confirmed.  I remember our minister, Reverend Crawford.  Mostly I remember the kindness and acceptance.  Our church had one rule, the Golden Rule.  The Christianity that I was taught was the humility, generosity, and tolerance that Jesus showed us every day of his life regardless of hardships.

When our family moved to another town I found horses, and in typical teenage fashion I traded church for teenage activities.  But I continued to be inspired by the life of Jesus, and continued to celebrate his birth and his death.  While in college I once attended another Presbyterian church in Philadelphia.  The minister spent his entire sermon condemning us for the sins we had surely committed, never encouraging us to go forward in kindness and generosity and peace.  It was unfamiliar and unwelcome.  I did not return.

As I grew older I recognized that I don’t believe much of the Bible, or any other religious text.  I am an atheist.  This hardly precludes my love of Jesus, the humble carpenter who put love first.  I believe in Jesus as an example of the wondrous potential in each of us.  The man with the courage to speak the truth in the face of hypocrisy, to embrace the weak and the poor who could do nothing for him in return, to live his love despite the consequences.  Unencumbered by various passages in the Old Testament, uncensored by organizations that may judge my actions by their own interpretation of faith, I am free to follow the Golden Rule, my conscience, and the example of Christ. 

This Christmas season think not so much of the child, but of the man he became, a man who loved and aided his fellow man, no exceptions.  Within each of us there is a capacity for kindness and tolerance and love.  Open your heart to the world, breathe deeply of the humble love that Jesus showed us.

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

I was thinking of using my young dog Poe to put the sheep in the pen on town common for the living nativity. When I arrived with the trailer I realized that the pen was surrounded with caroling kings, robed shepherds, a few outside fires, and a veritable road map of votive candles. I decided to use Song, a seasoned veteran. Good thing. The replacement lambs came out of the trailer like wild deer straight for the woods, and once turned drove hard for Bethlehem, brightly robed pageant participants be damned. It took a sure partnership to settle them and gently guide them through the obstacle course into their waiting pen.

Trailing Sheep by the Moon

Setting fence at dusk
Because the day is short
And the soft gold sun asked me to stay
So I stayed in the fields
I trained some young dogs,
talked with a friend who walked down the way

As the sun lost its gilt
I left to move sheep
bring the ewe flock to a new graze
But night came too fast
Each day doesn’t last
The fall colors gone dark end of day

Then the moon came to see
Climbed the dais of trees
Each bright silver ewe watches and waits
I open the pen
and whistle my dog
The sheep eagerly spill through the gate

The light pewter sky
Framed with filigree trees
Moon cast shadows of shepherd and flock
The sheep graze as they go
Prodded on by my dog
Grabbing tufts of grey grass as they walk

They go through the next gate
Drop their heads to lush feed
The sheep never looked up at the sky
The air is too soft
The sky is too fine
We walk back slowly, my dog and I

©Maria Amodei

Bartering Decency

Yesterday we traded human decency for personal benefit, whether financial, social or emotional. We elected a candidate who mocked the handicapped; denigrated women; explicitly incited the crowds to violence at his rallies; called Mexicans rapists and suggested banning Muslims from the country while relentlessly banging the drum of xenophobia. He did all these on national TV. Watching a Trump rally you saw him egging on angry crowds, chants of obscenities towards any who wo...uld disagree. It was grotesque.

I am a woman. I have friends who are black and friends who are Muslims. These are people I have worked with at various organizations in Boston. These are people who Trump supporters were willing to deny basic respect and human rights for whatever personal advantage they felt they would get by voting for Trump. I know people willing to deny basic human rights and respect to my friends if it is expedient.

I’m old enough to have learned that if someone is willing to treat others badly, then they will treat you badly if it is to their advantage. The profound sadness of this election is twofold, first a worry for the vulnerable populations in this country, and second the personal sadness of realizing and adjusting to people in our lives who would trade our basic rights and respect for some personal benefit.

Farewell

The leaves are suffused with the colors of farewell
Brightly they engage, a visual embrace
Bathed by late sun, carried by crisp air,
The colors call out, bid us adieu,
Like the daily sunsets,
but the autumn goodbye is longer, bittersweet.

 ©Maria Amodei 2016

The Shots

I re-vaccinated my lambs for CDT this past weekend since two of them have gotten enterotoxaemia despite having been vaccinated in spring. They are about 6 months old now, strong and supple, not at all accustomed to being handled. Normally I just lift the front end of lambs and push their hind feet forward to pop them on their bum for shots. But 6 month old lambs are too large for this. They were able to plant their hind feet, moving them back as needed to keep their feet under them. With their hind feet firmly on the ground they can perform maneuvers that much resemble the royal Lipizzan stallions. Except that instead of impeccably clad riders and music there is just me, filthy and frustrated and swearing a blue streak.  So I tried leveraging their head over their back like you would drop a ewe.  The moment I’d put a hand on their head it was like I was holding the head of an angry 80 pound cobra, entire spine snaking and swinging their body.  And this is with them pressed in a corner by a dog.  I can barely move through the velcro pack but they apparently can slide along each other like greased ball bearings.  They make moves that ewes only dream of, and the shorter body makes it very difficult to get them in position to actually tip.  I did mention how strong and incredibly supple they are right?  I may as well have been trying to out-maneuver the US women’s gymnastics team.  Indeed maybe I should name my replacement ewe lambs Simone, Laurie, Aly, Gabby and Madison.