Shadows

Shadows, I have a problem with shadows, they bring things that don't exist, taking us from children throughout our lives afraid that there may be things hiding in the dark that we cannot and do not want to see. And shadows allow ones that do exist to become invisible. Invisible places to the eye, but not the heart and soul, especially the deepest shadowy places of the mind and soul...

September does that. Letting shadows grow longer and nights stretch into eternity. As we remember times, we can never live again. Except in shadows reflected off the wall of our minds, and as our minds set the soul free to wander back and forth safely through shadows, from past to future and back again, images of a conscious dream world, conscious "Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives." (—Schneider and Velmans, 2007) this link in many ways is and is not what I am finding in my shadows .

But sometimes in the middle of the night, a face appears, a voice heard, perhaps a touch startles, and then is gone.

September steals summer the way time steals youth, hopes and dreams, some came to be and some not. Dreams of what a summer could be. Just given a little more time, we could squeeze in that barbeque, the trip to the beach, a day trip to anywhere, if only given just a little more time. But September comes; the sea breeze has more bite to it now, heralding the bone numbing winds that will come to this small New England town, when January freezes the harbor and the soul alike.

I think I am mad at summer for what I could not make it.

Shadows smother day's light like fingers pinch flame, shadows grow darker, and we melt into darkness, lost in memories of summer. The way the old still run, running fast and faster in the shadows of yesterday.

Mad at summer for what they did not do.

I have a problem with shadows; I have a problem with September shadows in particular. September brings to a close so many things, things you can only do on warm summer days in New England, like talking to my neighbors on the sidewalk, I actually like talking on a sidewalk that runs by all the houses on the block, walking by and taking the time to rub the head of the neighborhood pug puppy and dancing a few rounds with the 80 pound and growing boxer next door. Hearing sea gulls and the wind.

People can talk on sidewalks, it is a neutral meeting place and there is something warm about a good sidewalk chat. As humans we live in vacuums ,existing in a world of our own make believe, playing with our shadows attempting to keep them away as long as possible, or at least until the shadows of Fall make it impossible to run from them any longer. We have to do this, it is in its way survival, we must out wit and outlive the shadows...

I know my neighbors are there I see a light, go on, go off, I will not think of a timer and I’m living next door to a robot!

More shadows.

Occasionally though an escaping blur flees car to house, unrecognizable bundle against the January winds, that September had warned us about. I know my friends have their own shadows to deal with, but at least they are my neighbors, or do robots get cold?

More shadows.

My cats have shadows also; of course, they probably have a better reason, certainly better instincts. Starting in mid September (though they live indoors) to stake out their mid winter shelters. Visiting their winter hangouts. Chloe, the girl, likes the carpet in the living room, not a sheltered corner of the room, but often directly in the middle of the room. The draftiest room in the house. A beautiful old house overlooking a beautiful old harbor, but when the " nor' easter" blows, reversing the natural flow of things, the old houses timbers do truly shiver. But Perhaps Chloe loves this room because the windows look out over the harbor, and in the summer, it’s from this room that she surveys her kingdom. And everyone knows that for a cat all that they can see from their window is their world, their Kingdom. Perhaps that room in the winter makes her shadows and waiting for summer a little easier. Pericles, The Maine Coon cat, I must always capitalize those words “Maine Coon Cat” or so Pericles who is now 17, sweet, and gentle as ever, and so proud of himself tells me. Pericles prefers the bedroom; he is completely deaf and knows that one place his people will always end up is in this room. They will find him. It’s a reality that makes the shadows easier, shadows he can count on. Pericles and I have one of those very uncommon almost cosmic bonds that sometimes happen between Human and Animal. And it must make him feel safe from his shadows to have me nearby, and he does the same for me. We have comforted each other in so many ways for so many long winter nights and sunny summer days. Each winter I pray he will last another season to make it to a sunny window again.

So in this small New England seacoast village, my neighbors and I will bunker down, add the storm windows, seal up a few more cracks. And prepare to deal with a few more shadows. At sunsets, we peek to see a light from nearby houses feeling assured that our friends are safe and warm and waiting for the sidewalk chats again. It gives us strength, if not a reason, to deal with the shadows that creep across our gardens and our minds...

We content ourselves by finding safe places in the shadows, the places where a little sun sneaks through, and we remember that first teenage summer on the beach, We a twinkling brief promise, that shadows never win.

What we could have done with summer, just given a little more time.

I have a problem with shadows.

Ads, War And Politicians

Ads, War and Politicans





I’m upset, gee what about now Dan Is the red-toed tree ant in trouble again? By the way, I am sure there is no such Red-Toed Tree Ant, at least not on this planet. I’m upset about ads on blog sites, especially on my blog site. Yes, I do run ads, because after 14 years of paying for the CEO’s salaries at major hospitals and health care companies, even making a small fortune on the ads that run on my website helps. And if anyone thinks, I have earned a small fortune doing this, “Please allow me to introduce myself I’m a man of wealth and taste” From The Rolling Stones, Sympathy For the Devil.

I have no control, over what ads are appearing, when, where etc.... I can write and anti war piece and find an Army recruitment ad next to it, in some way I am able to live with that “The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars. “
William Westmoreland

So unfortunately, I guess we need an Army, it is the number of losable wars we do not need at the expense of young lives. “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. “It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”
William Tecumseh Sherman

So today, I was happily checking my website and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a little politician, on my website so clear. And It does not not matter his or her name or wither I would otherwise support them. They were not invited on to my website. Furthermore I am sure that with all the TV, Radio, and news paper ads Politicians do not need to take up space in my website and especially in my brain and obviously they are doing both right now. If I sound like I think that politics and politicians are the root of all evil, I don’t mean to, because I do not think politics and politicians are the root of all evil, just in most cases a strong contributor to it.

I love the travel ads, that appear, and in fact, I would say that I have no problem with 90% of the ads that run. Of course, now I want to lose sleep watching the ads appear because who knows what they may try to sneak by me in the middle of the night.

Bring on the Army, I will deal with them later and the ads for the snake oil that will do everything from grow hair to other body parts, thank God, I haven’t seen any of those yet.

But please leave the Politicians on their own stump somewhere. Somewhere far away and have them speak so low, I’ll read about a list of names find out what their political views are and probably write in George McGovern .

It’s going to be interesting what ads may appear here. Political ads are a lot like the new super drug resistant germ that is starting to spread. Now I’m off to see how one removes a delete resistant politician from a website.