I’m getting back into things again, at least as much as is possible. Yesterday I wrote twelve hundred words or thereabouts. I have done a lot of work on the house and grounds. Ha, ha. Grounds makes it sound like the homestead is palatial, which it is not. We have a home and a little over ten acres. Most of the land is pastureland. We have a large yard, front, and back, for use by the kids, pets, and us. That is assuming the pony is not a pet; she has most of the pasture.
We now have a spot almost ready to house the two kids, Nigerian dwarf goats. They will arrive soon after weaning. Our pet Vietnamese pot-belly pig now enjoys our side yard and a small barn for shelter. We have other pigs we raise for feeder hogs that took her old pen.
We have several dogs. The latest to join us was dumped off on the side of the road by some asshole to have a slow starve. Let me say this. If you don’t know what to do with your pets and don’t want more, neuter or spay them. Failing that, grow a pair and put them down. It is so much more humane than dumping a puppy or kitten to starve or be torn apart by a predator. Come on, folks.
I don’t know why I say that. If people haven’t matured past the point of having tantrums and burning their neighbor’s businesses, why would I expect them to grow up enough to take care of their pets?
But I digress. Like the sea, things find their natural level. That doesn’t mean a new normal has broken through the chaos. We are now in the process of learning how to survive with COVID 19 around. We will have to expect the unexpected for a long time.
An example of that is what happened just this morning. One of my children presented with a temperature and a sore throat. That scared the shit out of me. We can’t get her tested for COVID until Monday. I also realize that strep throat is moving through the area. A year ago, I would fear her getting strep because it would march through the house and make us all sick. Today, I am hoping for strep.
Oh yeah, things are still happening, both reputable and vile, just like always. And, just like always, we will keep marching along.
If there is anything exceptional about the year 2020, I will say it is the unexpected. Every time things start to settle down, something unanticipated happens. What is enthralling about that is the unforeseen! Inherent in it is a fact for which we wouldn’t expect to prepare. Now the government is supposed to have answers for each unheralded event that would influence its citizens, in practicality that doesn’t happen. They make a reasonable attempt, but they fall short because no one can be ready for all contingencies. I suppose it is very much like our own preparedness for different scenarios. If we prepared for everything, then we would not have a chance to grow.
What do you think? Don’t we need the unexpected? I think we do. Just like right now. We have a chance for staggering personal growth. It all depends on what we do with ourselves during all of the upheavals.
There are so many things popped up this year; I wouldn’t be shocked if we had the first contact with an alien species this year. Well, that’s not entirely true. Some octopuses and squids look very much like aliens to me, but they’ve been here so long everyone assumes that they are terrestrial. Although I have to say I think our search for extra-terrestrial beings is too closed-minded. How do we know they are alive as we know it? Perhaps we are the odd one out, and most life out there isn’t as we know it.
Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to find out that most life is not as we know it, but much like what we know of as rocks and pebbles? I mean, what if most life expectancy could be thousands of our years long. Indeed, so long that we could not understand a single thought of theirs because they take so long to think a viable idea.
Now wouldn’t that be special? All of us are running around to find another species but can’t find them because they move, talk, and think slowly. We could be ignorant of what they have to say because we move so fast. Now that’s a hell of a note.
Long ago, I concluded that the higher the stress resulted in greater maturity and development. Do you think it a coincidence that the Greatest Generation had to find a way to survive the most significant war in recent memory?
Right now, many people want to wipe out any memory of history that they don’t like. There have been so many people in the past, both recent and far-flung, that tried that. It didn’t work.
What they did back then might be reprehensible by today’s standards, but that means we have developed as a people. Do I need to say that again? Let me take a different spin. If our ancestors did not act the way they did, none of us would be alive today. They survived long enough for their line to continue.
However, if you insist on judging our ancestors by our standards and not theirs, have you thought about how your descendants will pass sentence on you? What will their standards be? The only thing we know for sure is — they won’t have your criteria. They will have their own. What if they use future standards.
Kind of gives you a chill, huh.