What I Did On My Summer Vacation

It's close to the winter solstice now and the days are disappointingly short. The air is chill and here in the Northwest we tend hibernate like grouchy old bears. It's a good time to think about the summer past and recall the warmth of the sun.

It seems like only yesterday that I took an airplaine to the "State of Enchantment" drove three hundred miles to an undisclosed location, stuggled up huge rock formation and watched the an almost full moon rise over the the canyons.

We were perched on a pinnacle that was part of a rock ridge that stretched for 100 miles between Utah and Arizona. The ribs of the earth.

On one side of this rocky throne, the sun was sinking slowly, painting the sky and land with lurid, unimaginable color. At the same moment and directly opposite, a pale moon began floating up through the pastel colors of the reflected sunset.

The company was more than congenial. The wine and the food tasted marvelous after the climb. Nothing moved on the land to disturb our homage to the dying day. The silence was palpable.

Such silence that is unknown in an urban landscape. It is a deeply moving experience. Even the wind stopped. If you listened carefully, you could hear the earth breath.

It was an eternal moment, unsurpassed in its beauty and simplicity.
Carol DW

Time Out

During the past two months the deterioration of America has accelerated alarmingly. It's
It's almost impossible to keep up. It seems a dark cloud has settled permanently over the land.
The stock market is tanking, the dollar is in the toilet, the booming housing market is going bust, people are losing their homes in record numbers and the lending industry is on life support.
There is blowback from imperialistic meddling in Pakistan and Afghanistan and ongoing genocide the Palestinian terrorities, Darfur and Iraq. Cheney, the cowardly draft dodger is tampering with intelligence again and shaking his arthritic fist at Iran; a country that hasn't attacked anyone in 250 years. There just isn't much good news.
Most alarming are the increasingly bold incursions into into Constitutionally protected areas of American life. Americans are now in the unenviable position of being in danger from their own government.
Naomi Wolf's timely new book "The End of America" is guaranteed to send chills down your spine. The parallels between Germany's descent into facism and what is happening right here, right now, are unmistakeable. In the last week, I have heard two legislators express fear and concern over the state of the state.
Rather than oppose the unthinkable, the alleged opposition political Party are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. There is no end in sight.
As Charlie Reese aptly commented, the presidential candidates seem to be unapologetically running for dictator.
All the traditional ways that Americans have been able to exercise power have proven ineffective. The arrogance of our elected representatives is palpable. What seems to be left is civil disobedience, open rebellion or acquiescence.
It isn't a pretty picture.
Time to take a step back and rethink the duties of citizenship.
Carol DW