Animal Spirits

from http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/4057

"For AOL Journalers, this means that the neighborhood is about to get a lot bigger and a lot more diverse -- and, not entirely coincidentally, that all your friends with AIM accounts will now be able to have their own blog here on AOL, with all the features of AOL Journals (the real difference is that AIM Blogs, being a free service, have an ad at the top, whereas AOL Journals, as part of your paid AOL account, are ad-free)."

 

I will not post in this journal again until the banner ads are removed.  Until the time that AOL chooses to treat their customers with respect, you can find me at:

http://animalnaturespirits.blogspot.com/

It is absurd that AOL thinks we journalers that PAID for our accounts are willing to subsidize the exact same service provided for free to AIM members.  I paid for my journal space.  The offensive banner ads have to go.

Blogspot, by the way, is free and has no imposed banner ads.

For those of you also leaving AOL, please please please provide a link to your new journal site.

ecori at 9:29:28 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

 

That is . . . . once you get past THEIR advertising at the head of MY journal that I PAID for with MY subscription dollars.

Suggestions to everyone: 

1.  Do NOT click on any of the banner links.  The advertisers will soon find that their dollar is not effective if everyone is avoiding the advertiser. 

2.  Go to Keyword:  Feedback   and file a complaint with AOL that they are putting advertising on our space that we PAID for.

If AOL won't hear us, then as a company CEO at my last job wisely said,

               "People vote with their feet."

ecori at 9:28:15 AM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

My not so well kept secret . . . . someone very near and dear to me, an artist that perhaps a few of you know . . . . is having a BIRTHDAY on Wednesday!  There is even a full moon for her birthday!

Don't tell her that I told you!  :::::impish grin::::::

ecori at 8:40:56 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 4 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Sometimes things, even obvious things, need to be said.  It is my greatest pleasure and joy to share my life with Judi.  She is full of more grace and kindness and generosity than one could ever expect from a person, and she is all this after living through what many people could not survive.  She continues to be my hero and my inspiration and I am continually surprised that a spirit as giant as she is has come to live with me.

ecori at 10:13:48 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 5 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

 

 

On our weekend walk in the woods, Judi had discovered this wonderful praying mantis and handed the camera over to me to take some pictures.  We were delighted.  I sat down to get close to him and was happily photographing him when suddenly this "daddy long legs" came along and immediately caught the eye of the mantis.  The "daddy long legs" froze and the mantis stared intently at it, waiting for the next movement of long legs to decide if he should strike.  Judi and I held our breath wondering what was going to happen next.  I stopped moving when I realized that my movement might cause long legs to move, and the movement might inspire the mantis to strike it.  I did not want to be the cause of long legs' demise.

Most of us do not like to look closely at the predator/prey relationship that is inherent in the cycle of life on earth.  At the zoo, I feed (not live) shrimp to the octopus - a being I adore.  I also get to hand feed the freshwater prawn, a handsome guy, also known as jumbo shrimp.  In one case its food, in another its a creature we carefully tend to.  Why do we draw these seemingly random distinctions?

After our mantis encounter, we went to a secluded side of the park and sat on a bench by the lake.  Suddenly there was a loud desperate screeching call from a bird as it was chased into the bush behind us by a hawk.  As we sat on the bench the desperation and screaming of the chased bird went on and on. . . and on.  We saw a blue jay in a bush nearby clearly also upset and we assumed that a hawk had hunted a blue jay.  The screaming of the desperate bird took the breath right out of us as we stared at the ground unmoving, imagining the horror of the scene in our minds.  We contemplated intervening, however we both knew that nature should be allowed to take its course.  It was a horrible few minutes that we sat and listened and we both questioned if we should leave that place to relieve ourselves of being witness to this violent death.  We did not leave however.  We sat silently and listened, hoping for a quick end for the hunted bird, just out of sight in the bushes.

We love to see hawks.  We need to accept they are predatory animals.  This experience required staring into that face of acceptance.

After what seemed like forever, TWO birds flew out of the bush - a hawk chasing another hawk.  Only then was it clear that the battle was between two hawks, and since they also both flew away, no one was actually mortally injured in this encounter. 

I was relieved, but also reminded of the cycle of life.  We are all a part of that cycle.  Others die that we live.  This is how it is and I try to find peace with that.  Killing for entertainment I have rallied against.  That which humans do that put us so out of balance with all-that-is. That has no part in the cycle.

For those of you that are still wondering, long legs didn't move and the mantis's attention soon went elsewhere and he crawled away.  Long legs lived to see another day.

 

ecori at 9:40:08 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 16 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

At our last fire ceremony, as I sat in front of the fire quietly drumming, I "felt" an inspiring message . . .

I felt a row of spirits behind me, each with one arm outstretched and a hand resting supportively on my back.  Behind them was a wider row of spirits, hands outstretech, also resting on my back. Behind them, an even larger third row, doing the same, all with their hands on my shoulders and back providing strength and support.  They formed a triangle with me at the very point. . . .

What a wonderful feeling to be given this support.

But as soon as I felt this, questions came to me....  I am not so important that there should be so many there in support of me.  A mixture of humbleness and honesty tells me that it would be out of balance to believe I should belong at such a point of attention and importance.  (After all, I do not dedicate that much of my life in support of other beings  - and balance means never taking more than you give.)

They quickly cleared up my puzzlement.  I was not the point of the triangle, not the ultimate recipient of their gifts.  There was a point in front of me, visualized as a brown sphere.  I understood immediately that this is where their support was concentrated, and I understood immediately the sphere to represent what I am supposed to accomplish in my life.  It's not about me but about "the purpose". . . whatever that might be, the greater good.  The support, the encouragement and foundation they were providing was for this greater purpose, not just for me.

 

ecori at 7:14:35 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 6 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

I just spent three days working the phones and the internet trying to help people reunite with their displaced companion animals from the Katrina disaster.  I live fairly close to the Humane Society of the United States (the national organization) and they called for volunteers, as they are overwhelmed with phone calls.  It turned out to be a much more emotionally draining experience than I anticipated.  Many of the companion animals that were pulled out of evacuated areas were shipped out to shelters all over the country.  As you can imagine, connecting people with their animals again is a giant task.  They are learning from this disaster what kind of structure and databasing needs have to be in place for next time, when and if a next time comes.  However, for now, it is as best a haphazard process.

I didn't feel like I made a lot of progress.  We were dealing with calls from people who could not find their animals in the public databases, or they could find their animals in the database, but due to incomplete records, could not figure out where they ended up.  I usually could not find any more info than they already had.  Many instances, its just a matter of waiting until the receiving shelters get their info in to the databases.  Now, I don't blame anyone for the incomplete information.  The thousands upon thousands of animals that were rescued are at least alive somewhere, which was the important first step.

I will not share any of the personal stories here of the people that I talked to out of respect for their privacy.  I'll simply say that talking one on one to many folks that lost everything including their four legged companions (or birds or other animals) was just heart breaking.  There was more than one search request that read like this:  "We've lost everything, but if we could just find our pets, none of the rest of it matters."

 

[Note:  What I have learned from this experience is that if you have a companion animal, consider microchip technology.  That seems to be a key tool in recovery.]

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I only recently learned that Fox Hunting was not limited to the UK, but in fact this alive and well right here in the Mid-Atlantic (Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia area).

Blood sports.  Disgusting.

I went to a number of web sites of organizations that participate in Fox Hunting and read their justifications for this hideous activity.  They claim that, as opposed to the activity in the UK, the goal here is not to kill the animal - yet in the next breath they admit that many times the dogs do kill the fox or squirrel or coyote.  They claim that they contribute to the preservation of the environment and they contribute to foxes flourishing.  While I doubt that statement very much, it is very pathetic that they try to justify preservation so that they can kill for entertainment.  Preservation needs no justification. 

I then went to the web site of the Humane Society of the United States to see what information they have about Fox Hunting and while looking through their web site came upon a more disturbing article.

Seems that our very own VP of the United States participates in canned hunts.  In case you don't know what canned hunts are - its when captive animals, many times captive raised tamed animals are released directly in front of hunters, or penned so that hunters can just go up and shoot them.  Apparently our very on VP managed to shoot and kill over seventy pheasants in one session, took a break for lunch and then proceeded to shoot mallards in the afternoon.

Again, blood sports.  Disgusting.

It is no surprise to me, with the callous disregard our president and vice president have shown for human life, and blatant disregard for and active destruction of our mother earth that they would both participate in killing of animals for entertainment. 

There is a fundamental evil and a fundamental lack of connection with the Source, with All-That-Is, when someone finds sport and entertainment in killing. 

As a species and as a society we should be way way way beyond the need to kill for entertainment.  As long as this evil and darkness still exists in peoples' hearts, how can we hope for a better more gentle world?

(As I anticipate someone asking.... hunting to put food on the table I do not believe is the same as killing for entertainment.  Its hard to claim that is any differnt than eating meat from the grocery store.)

ecori at 1:33:42 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 7 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

 

I am proud to have been a participant in the anti-war, pro-peace march on Washington.

Best slogan of the day:  "Make Levees, Not War"

 

 

From AOL news:

"The anti-war rally, held Saturday at the western edge of the National Mall, drew a crowd of 100,000 or more. Lasting a marathon 12 hours, it featured folk singer Joan Baez and Cindy Sheehan, the California mother whose 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year."

"On Sunday, a rally supporting the war drew roughly 500 participants, far below the 20,000 expected by event organizers. Held on the eastern edge of the Mall, the rally was over in about three hours."

ecori at 11:11:07 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 7 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

(see part one in the entry directly below)

This is an email I received from a friend of mine that drove supplies down to an animal rescue center in the disaster area.  The magnitude of the disaster from the companion animals' perspective isn't being reported in the news. 

 

Here is his story (the second part):

 

The little guy was alive and his eyes were open, but he was in shock.  He kept looking at me like he didn't know what happened.  There was no blood and his neck wasn't broken.  I ran him over to the vet's stall.  They said that he wasn't doing well - his gums had gone white and he wasn't moving – I assume he was in shock. They needed drugs, but couldn't find any drugs in the makeshift vet office in a horse stall.  They drove him over to their van where they had the drugs they needed, and that was the last I saw of him.  I broke down at that point.  I should have been thrown my little black and white dog into a locked pen where he was safe from that pit bull.  The look in his eyes is burned in my mind - he had trusted me to take care of him, and I failed.  He was puzzled about how I could let him get hurt.  I should have been able to do something.

 

The vet found me later and told me that she thinks the little black and white mixed breed dog would live.  If he made it through the night, she promised to take him back to her kennel and find him a home.  I wish there was a way to contact that vet to thank her.

 

I went back to cleaning cages and walking dogs.  There were no incidents the rest of the day.  At around 12:30, I went back to the RV to grab my stuff. I hadn't showered for almost 3 days and smelled like the bottom of a dog crate, so I figured that I better at least change clothes before getting on a plane.  Then I left.

 

I don't even pretend to be one of the people in this story who deserves any credit.  All I did was drive a nice air-conditioned truck for a day, walk around in disbelief for a few hours, then offer the little bit of help that I could give.  I even had access to a nice air-conditioned RV for a couple of hours of sleep.  The real heroes in this story don't have access to an RV and they're sleeping in their cars or in tents after working hard for 22 hours each day.  Many are just sleeping in a bag on the ground.  The real heroes in this story are spending days or weeks helping with this effort.  The real heroes of this story are the men and women who are volunteering their time and their hearts to help these animals for weeks on end.  I wish I could say that I was one of those people, but I cannot.

 

My admiration and gratitude go to the mission commander, the leaders working with him, the vets, the rescue workers, and the hundreds of volunteers.  They're doing an important, heartbreaking, sad, inspirational task.  It gives me some faith in humanity that hundreds of men and women of all ages and classes would come to help the most helpless members of our society, the animals.  These men and women are true heroes. 

 

 

GO TO HUMANE SOCIETY DONATION WEB SITE

http://www.hsus.org/

ecori at 8:02:29 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 6 comments: Show Recent | Add your own