TwoMonthsTraveling

  I just returned from six weeks meandering around the south and west, then another three weeks with Beth in Texas and Georgia.  Her business  prevents her from accompanying me full time at the present, so I take the van and drive mostly back roads on impulse, sleeping and hiking and golfing where the road takes me. I escape the cold and snow of the north and discover new landscapes, sleeping in National forests and Walmart parking lots and wherever the evening finds me.                                                  To that end, as much as I do not agree with the conservative politicians in Texas, the state is very friendly to spontaneous people like myself, for they allow overnight parking in their roadside rests- which are numerous-and the small towns in the western part of the state have free parking for RV's -including electricity and water if one wants it. People in the south generally are more friendly than northerners , with store clerks saying 'thank you' and other civilities, although the abundance of Baptist churches gives the area a religious overtone that is a little uncomfortable. That is, beneath the pleasantries there is a residue of prejudice that is hard to define, as if some of the whites cannot quite admit that the civil war-which one town in South Carolina calls the "Confederate war"-was fought and lost because of slavery. The focus to them is on their pride for the bravery of the individual soldiers and generals rather than the reasons for the fighting. It is as though it would be acceptable for Germany to display the Nazi flag simply because the German soldiers fought well; the larger moral questions are ignored.  But politics aside the south and west are a wonderful winter escape, and I drift to the rural areas and small towns. Florida is an exception, for the overdeveloped congestion in that state is to be avoided unless one enjoys such things.                                                               The pictures show a Trump store for fanatics in Virginia, an exclusive Victorian era hotel on Jekyll Island, Georgia, a solar array in Texas, a sunset over the Mississippi river at the town of Natchez, and some of the fantastic landscape in east central New Mexico. ( click on the pics to enlarge...)

Buckaloons

       There is a national forest recreation area near town called Buckaloons that is used mostly by local people for walking their dogs or loading and unloading watercraft. About a level mile in circumference it used to be a primary camping place for Seneca Indians until white people arrived when-predictably- they were decimated by war and disease. Today there are 60 campsites used by people looking to get away for a day or two, although busy roads are within one half mile so this is not a pristine wilderness. Still, it remains a refuge for wildlife-fox and squirrel and deer and nuthatch and whatever else exists in the broader Allegheny forest-for despite the roads there is access to the thousands of acres beyond. The Brokenstraw and Irvine creeks flow into the Allegheny river within the area, and offer habitat for fish and water birds; I have caught bass and chubs in the rivers and no doubt that is why the Indians favored this spot. To me, this is one of those areas great for day use or for travelers to stay over night if passing through the forest. There are more remote places to camp and hike but the convenience of this location ensures its popularity.    ...click on pictures to enlarge them

 

Almanac

   I always check out the yearly almanac from the library, although I notice myself questioning the sources and wondering about the accuracy of the data more than in the past. That is the result of the division within our society and the deliberate distortions of reality among some people. I  consider myself a skeptical optimist, which means that I have tried to keep an open mind about things while maintaining a preference for the methods of science and logical reasoning. The cynicism and distrust I witness of our institutions is unnatural and distasteful to me; I accept that the data may be off by a few decimal points but that is the best human beings can do. I do not accept the cynical attitude that the majority of people have bad intentions.                                                                                                                                A couple of facts in this years almanac regarding money is that the wealthiest 30 U.S. individuals possessed over 2 trillion dollars in wealth as of April 2022 according to Forbes magazine. That is approximately what the U.S. spends on Social Security and Defense combined in one year.  The top 20% of people own 52.7 percent of wealth, the bottom 20% own 2.9 percent. That unequal distribution has been ongoing since 1970, with  the middle 60% also losing wealth consistently over the decades.                                    In the obituaries of 2022 is Peter Robbins, the voice of Charlie Brown in the 1965 Christmas special, and Jay Last, a physicist who helped create the semiconductors which laid the foundation of silicon valley.  Both are unknown to most people yet their influence continues long after their deaths. Many of the obituaries in the almanac describe accomplished people who are totally unknown except to their own generation and those who personally knew them. That exposes the profound temporariness of existence; people of every generation are forgotten by the next one, and only the most influential-the Einsteins or Lennons or Hitlers -survive the forgetting of time until what remains are the fragments that historians decide to preserve. Also in the almanac are people from other cultures whom western societies have totally neglected; history is written by the powerful. Nowhere in the obituaries are recorded the daily exchanges of the individuals who interacted with them; I do not suppose Buddhas family thought too highly of him when he abandoned them to seek his enlightenment.                                                             So an almanac is a potpourri of information that offers perspective, incomplete though it may be. It is an attempt to be objective in a world that desperately needs one.

Fusion Power

     Scientists announced today that they had achieved controlled nuclear fusion ( Google it...) for the first time on December 5th, a difficult feat that they have been working on for decades. The technology has tremendous promise as a source of mostly clean, 'limitless' energy, but there remain many engineering obstacles until we achieve economical power station reality.  I do not want to minimize or criticize the potential importance of this breakthrough, but I compare it to the Wright Brothers first flight when what will be needed are rocket engines. As new people and money and computing power are flushed onto the problem, maybe breakthroughs will occur faster than the progress in flight, so let's hope humanity has the time.

A Remarkable Woman

  This is Piper VanOrd, owner of an outdoor shop here in Warren, the go to location for canoe and kayak trips on the Allegheny River, as well as a source of all kinds of outdoor gear and clothing used here in the national forest.  Without any previous connection to Ukraine, she has traveled to the region several times since April of 2022, where she has helped set up a shelter for refugees in Poland while also buying and transporting supplies into Ukraine-everything from food to personal hygiene items to generators. Over the past ten months she has established many contacts in the region, and has become friends with some of the people there; "It is not about me" she says; her motivation for her hard work and dedication has been her selfless compassion and moral clarity to do what is right in an unjust war.

                           I am not on Facebook although I know Piper has a page where she keeps everyone updated about the people she has helped overseas as well as information about how to donate money to her efforts. If anyone is interested in learning more please search her name or Allegheny Outfitters; I can assure you that rather than some anonymous charity she will make sure the money goes to where it is desperately needed. Thanks                                                                                                          "Senseless barbarism. These are the only words that come to mind seeing Russia launch another missile barrage at peaceful Ukrainian cities ahead of New Year," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in a reaction to the Russian attacks. "There can be no 'neutrality' in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be 'neutral' equals taking Russia's side."                                                                                                                    

Babble

    -I have not written here in a couple months and really do not have much new to say, but feel an obligation to say something to the three or four or fourteen people who actually read this blog. Like most Americans, Beth and I have been absorbing the news..."shooting up the evening news" ... as Jackson Browne once said, but it is not a healthy habit and generally serves to frustrate us. At such moments it is best to remember the essential advice of Buddhism  to not "grasp for opinion", for there is no changing human nature. Some people believe the earth is flat regardless of the facts, and the polarized nature of the country today simply exposes the wide diversity of perspective that human beings are capable of.  If the outright lies and delusions and moral depravity of  power hungry people force America into a violent civil confrontation, then this is just one more repeat of the historical record when people were forced into wars against slavery, or Nazism, or-more recently-against Mr. Putin. It is apparent that many people do not share my moral sense of justice and fair play, nor my respect for the science and facts and holistic thinking that I use to define truth, and I see clearly how and why societies and nations fall into wars.                           -In hindsight the overall death rate of Covid 19 was about 1.1% in the United States, ( John Hopkins University data) and more or less than that worldwide. Most of the dead were the elderly and those with comorbidity s -meaning everything from asthma to being obese. Did that mortality rate justify closing down the economy, or should the correct response have been to isolate the most vulnerable and allow things to progress normally? If the latter, many of today's supply chain problems might have been avoided and the present worldwide inflation may have been lessened. Of course, in April 2020 hospitals were being overwhelmed and much of the information about the disease was unknown, so the response was an attempt to minimize deaths while at least keeping the necessities of the economy functioning.  Those who were confined to their homes emerged with new perspectives on what was meaningful in life, while schoolchildren seem to have been negatively affected in their academics; covid affected everyone differently.                                                                                                                                                              -The war in Ukraine seems to encapsulate and expose all of the rhetoric that Americans claim to value regarding freedom and right and wrong:  A nation (Russia)with an egotistical leader(Putin) used specious excuses of nationalism and threats to its existence to invade its neighbor and reabsorb them by force into their 'empire'.  There was an alternative choice to coexist to the benefit of both nations, but Mr. Putin-being one of those aforementioned power hungry morally depraved leaders- chose instead to invade. After 8 months of war some American politicians are questioning their commitment by threatening to withhold economic support-despite the clear moral justification of the Ukrainians in defending their freedom against a despot. As of this writing the United States has spent about $60 billion? in Ukraine.                            By contrast we spent over $2 trillion in Afghanistan with almost 2,550 American soldiers lost and many wounded, and over $2 trillion in Iraq with at least 4,500 soldiers killed. In both of the latter conflicts the reasons for the fighting and the outcomes became questionable, if not totally wasted blood and money.  The core reasons for the Ukraine war appear to be similar to the reasons we fought for independence in the 1700's-freedom from what we considered a tyrannical power. No doubt threats of nuclear escalation may advise caution in Ukraine, but when forced into this war the Ukrainians have shown the courage and moral clarity that Americans should respect.                             That's my babble for today...top of my head thoughts that may or may not reflect the full truth of the world, but which I trust sound reasonable.       POSTSCRIPT: The American people-for the most part-rejected the election deniers in the mid term elections. That is encouraging to me. Here in Pennsylvania we elected a reasonable, intelligent governor over a January 6th participant and for senator we elected a  reasonable local man over a television star millionaire who does not even live here. 

TwoMoreBooks

  To anyone genuinely wishing to know how the world really works and is not satisfied with the simpleton soundbites provided by politicians or on Facebook and Twitter and some newscasts, here are two books to read. One details the virtual slavery and lawlessness that dominate much of the ocean trade, particularly the fishing industry, the other details the absolute corruption of the Russian empire, particularly Mr. Putin and his cronies. Most recently, Ravil Maagnov, a Putin critic "fell" from a hospital window in Moscow on September 1st and is the latest person to clumsily 'fall' from a high place.  Billions of stolen dollars go a long way in the hands of murderers, and the Putin book details the convoluted money laundering chain and violence and disinformation Putin and his thugs go to to protect their power.

      No, you are not going to be able to change the evil in the world, but try to be aware and support stores like Whole Foods and Aldi and Target, which do the best job at supporting sustainable fishing, and not support people like Mr. Trump who praise people like Mr. Putin. In my world at least, moral character, honesty and the rule of law mean something for a civil society to persevere. There are extremely brave, honest people trying to fight the thugs and thieves, and they are the ones doing their best to "drain the swamp" of the true slime.