Seer's Open Salon Blog

.. H$U$ .. Saving The Abused ..

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:04:30 -0400

Just gonna let this one speak for itself..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTrhQd9GHlE&feature=youtu.be

5 Random Acts Of Kindness .. and One Idiot.

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:04:17 -0400

All in the space of two hours.. and the idiot almost ruined it all.

1) The driver that stopped far back from the stop sign so that a truck and trailer could make the turn in more easily..

2) The older woman in line at the register allowing a younger woman with fewer products to go ahead of her..

3) Another woman at the same register that gave three dollars to that same older woman so she wouldn't have to put anything back..

4) The young man at the Wendy's payment drive through window who was singing.. "I'm just serenading my co-workers to brighten the day." he said..

5) At the same Wendy's, the pick up drive through window where another young man noticed that one of two Frostys wasn't topped off - and topped it off..

And then there was the idiot driver who had a turn signal on at a four way signal stop but went straight ahead when the lights changed - and nearly caused a three car pile up..

These random acts of kindness, some so seemingly inconsequential that I almost didn't notice them, added a bit of a glow to my drive home that even the idiot couldn't dim.

Like Samwise told Frodo (amended a bit), there's still human good in the world, the kind that makes us worth fighting for. I think.

How about you Dear Readers?

Have you noticed any of these lately?

photo credit : http://www.inquisitr.com/193577/random-acts-of-kindness-week-2012/ Random Acts Of Kindness Week was in January but clearly some of us make a practice of it all year round :).

Open Call : Favorite Song

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:03:44 -0400

Faced with the monumental task of choosing a single favorite song.. I caved. Instead I'll choose a favorite artist - of a sort :). I found E.S. Posthumus after an appreciation of a tune played as theme music on the television series Cold Case drove me to hunt that tune down. The following link is the entire piece, with the recognizable bits from the series therein :).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AEU5pBxY6E

After realizing that these folks had released three albums I went in search of them as well. They are now all I listen to while I'm playing on this metal monster. While you check out Nara notice that there are quite a few of their tunes in the side bar - if you enjoy this one check some of them out as well. Basically instrumental, a blend of orchestra, synthesizer and drum rhythms with occasional vocals. Many of the cuts are named for historical cities and often are flavored by those locales. Others are named for deities with their accompanying personality traits.

If you enjoy background music that doesn't quite fade into the background, occasionally causes you to stop and listen more closely to this one or that.. well, here ya go :).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigCXlGr_04&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwOKKU61jh0&feature=relmfu

(I decided to add a bonus here ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ENOt2mMsF4

..Walking While White ..

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:03:27 -0400

Slow coming.. and something that puzzles me.

I was born and grew up in Kansas, small town, everyone knew everyone, if not by face by family name.   Big aircraft factories and an air base so there was a mix of 'us' (meaning humanity).   I (think) I am thankful for parents who managed to bring me up into teenage-hood without even a whisper of prejudice, the word never crossed my younger radar, I probably couldn't have told you what it meant.   High school in Louisiana was an eye opener, living there just in time for the local schools to (finally) be integrated.

Fence walking (of which I am frequently still accused today) has it's uses.   I was one of a handful of white girls that were 'safe', didn't attract attention, didn't inspire trouble.   But I watched.   Everyone.   And listened.   To everyone.   And learned.   Stomach turning lessons that someone not yet graduated from high school probably shouldn't have had cause to learn.   If one was white.

And it puzzles me.   I understand that those who've been born and grew up in the 'deep south' - of all skin colors - consider it the status quo and unsurprising.   But surely I'm not the only person in the world from outside of this 'cauldron of race relations' who moved into it - and saw things - the things that were really there - with new eyes?   But then that may be the key.. come in from outside, live there (not just for weeks or months, or even a few years) and *pay attention* to the life that flows by you there.

Enough attention to realize that everywhere I went ; the 'bread basket', the 'deep south', west coast, east coast, the not-so-deep south.. I've spent time everywhere but the northern tier, and prejudice against some faction of society is thriving everywhere.

The nasty stuff, not just the sneers or the words.

I don't want to be misunderstood with my puzzlement over the firestorm of outrage that Trayvon's murder has engendered.   It's good to see.   But what the h*ll is it about this death - as opposed to so many others - that has opened eyes?   And I wonder.. how long will the outrage last..

To date at least, every time the ire of injustice has risen.. it has faded.   Can we just not sustain the energy?   The attention span?

Or are we ultimately a species that simply lacks true empathy for our fellows?

Some of us will be saying "But it's the government" "Law enforcement" "Wall Street".. fill in the blank.   To which I keep asking myself who has the bigger numbers?   I learned something from my mom as a kid - she's a tiny thing, not hardly five feet nowadays, five one as a younger woman.   Nearly all of my friends were nearly as big as she was - all of my brothers friends were bigger than she was.

Her tag line was always "Who's the adult?"   She always won.   Same kind of principle here.. numbers as opposed to age/knowledge.   Or maybe just "Who's the boss?"   I ask myself - frequently - if 'we' really want to make changes, why don't 'we' just step up to the plate and make them?

Perhaps because 'we' really aren't. We.

Foot note of thought : In Louisiana, as a white girl who made new black friends among those kids who'd been forced from their own school into one not theirs (I felt especially bad for those who were seniors - this forced move was done mid year, they didn't even get to graduate from the school they'd gone to for four years) maybe I had a somewhat singular view (for the time).

Walking White..

You see, this forced move closed down a black high school, and when the kids from there moved to 'their' new school they outnumbered the ones who 'walked white'. The rumors of 'fill in the blank' (with any kind of racist fearful tale you might ever have heard) exploded among not just the white kids but their parents. To the point that the presence of officers here and there came to be rather routine. My first real experience with how fear on the air tastes, actually has a kind of metallic flavor. Now I walked white too - I was born that way, have no other frame of reference so I suppose anything I say must come through that filter, even if I'm trying to stay aware of the wrong of it. And yet.. looking back, while I remember the taste of that fear, I have no rememberance of feeling it for myself. I was afraid that something would happen to blow up the powder keg - not that it would happen to me.

And today, again, with this young man's senseless death I think about those years in the 'deep south' and about high school. About numbers.

Those who 'walk white' are a fast growing minority in this country from those who 'walk in color'. The flavor of fear is perhaps more prevelant today than ever, for a variety of reasons. I have an observation about that, from past experience, that fear. Something everyone who 'walks white' should think about, long and hard. The numbers could tell a different story today from what has been told in history. Yet no matter the provocation - and there's plenty - that different story hasn't been written yet. So far there's a weird kind of balance, nasty things spring out here and there in all the colors of the rainbow. But just here and there.

When the thinking minds begin to shift their focus, and realize the truth of the numbers.. global warming will be the least of the worries. And I think it says something worth more thought, that that peculiar balance has remained in place to this point.. that this fear felt by all of the colors is manufactured - by whoever (all are guilty). None of us - of any color - I think truly wants all others dead and gone today. Not as a species anyway, never mind the few who really do, their numbers are actually low. For the rest of us I think it really is "Just let me live my life in peace". If that weren't the truth at the bottom of this world cauldron the cauldrom would already have boiled over and cracked, spilling it's entire contents into the dirt to be reabsorbed and recycled perhaps. Hopefully.

I think maybe we need to stop focusing on what has happened - and focus on what hasn't. We need to ask ourselves why it hasn't happened yet. So long as it hasn't happened there's still hope for us.

I think anyway.

... A Political Thought Exercise ...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:03:20 -0400

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here, for just a bit.   This is a thought exercise only. It's possible that it may require more than you can manage.

That's ok, it's not pass or fail, nothing will change if you can't manage the exercise, likely nothing will change even if you can.   All I ask is that you try, give it your best shot.

If you might be so inclined.

Forget all of your notions, forget what it 'looks' like, forget everything you've read and heard and both left and right wings, we're not flying just at the moment, we're supposing.

Ok.   Now.   Suppose.. that you were a scholar with a vision for a future of equality and such peace as might be had in a world where peace comes at a premium.

Suppose that you were a speaker whose oratory roused both conscience and consciousness.

Suppose you campaigned on principles dear to the hearts and souls of the people of your land.

And they chose you to guide their ship and them to this new land of prosperity, to the achievement of those principles.

And suppose that you absolutely meant every word and promise that you said and made which encouraged your people to follow you.

Now.   Suppose.. that you reached this position of leadership, only to be met with opposition at every turn.

Suppose that success with the goals for the ship and her people, in your position, required a spirit of cooperation and compromise with the crew operating the ship you captained.

And suppose even the notion of cooperation and compromise wasn't forthcoming, let alone being practiced, by any of that crew.

Suppose their only aim was to get you off the ship, even if the cost was mutiny.

Suppose that slowly.. slowly they turned the passengers to fear, and then against you.

Suppose this was because they were held in thrall to another 'one' who desired the control of the ship, as necessary to protect their own interests.

Because those interests were actually contrary to the principles of the passengers aboard the ship, and the new captain must not, at any cost, be allowed to see those principles installed.

Now.   Suppose that you, the new captain, knew - KNEW - beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this other 'one' would eventually run the ship onto the rocks, holeing the hull and sinking her.

Drowning everyone on board, crew and passengers alike while they and their small contingent of comrades escaped on the only life boat this ship had..

..to the island that had already been prepared long ago, just for this purpose, just for this day's arrival.

Ok, now here's the hard part, I know it'll be a real strain for many of us, but try anyway.   Really, honestly, try.

Suppose that you were a good man, with the true best interests of your crew, passengers and the ship at heart.   That you knew there was a way to successfully install those principles.

You KNEW this.   And you knew that if your crew, in thrall to this 'other one', managed to eject you from the ship, the crew the ship and its passengers were all doomed.

What would you do?

To what lengths would you go to, to insure the safety of all concerned?

Just suppose.. if you can. .