Small Things Count

Three major religions are celebrating holy days right now. I wish all of them, and the rest of my readers, many blessings on you and your families. And on our troubled world. May the faith of all religions work toward peace and unity.

Today’s Thursday Thought picture-quote tells us how to keep the spark ignited.

For Christians, Holy Week is here. We’ve spent Lent trying to improve in the areas of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. Possibly the most complicated of this Threefold Path is the last one. It’s more than just writing a check to a charity. Unless we’re careful, we can unwittingly donate to a hate group. We can’t always tell by their names. Examples: First Works Baptist Church, Israel United in Christ, Pacific Justice Institute, Vineland Clothing. These are among the 733 Hate Groups identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as active in our country. Before you give, go to https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map and enter your state to see which groups you should NOT give your money to because they spread hatred. Look at other states, as well, since the group may be located elsewhere. Identifying them is the first step. Not supporting them is the second step. Eradicating them and all they stand for is the ultimate step.

Time to do some grooming on those toes, get them ready for open shoes and sandals for the soon-to-be-here summer.  While doing that, remember this: those gross toenail clippings, so rich in calcium, are yummy and nutritious for your plants.  Toss them into your compost or mulch pile rather than into the trash. On the other hand, the garbage is the right place for earth-UNfriendly treated or fake nails.

[For more easy, money-saving, Eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. For a description of the book go to My Free Books).

Today is just a US-established commemorative holiday observed by only 7 states, but what it represents is important. It highlights Cesar Chavez not so much because it’s his birthday but for all the work he did to improve the lives of farmworkers. Why should we care about farmworkers? Think about who plants, tends, and harvests what we eat. They work hours a day, at low pay and are housed in slum-like conditions to provide our food, yet we tend to act like they don’t exist because they’re beneath us. We may think of them as “illegals” or people who don’t have the intelligence or drive to get “real” jobs. In reality we need farmworkers, and they deserve our respect. Please think about this on this day and all the days to come.

The light bulb was not Edison’s only bright idea.  In today’s Thursday Thought, his one-liner sheds light on ethics:

“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” –Thomas Edison, American inventor

My Back yard is a haven for a dozen varieties of birds, with at least 5 full nests all season, along with squirrels, bunnies escaping Easter captivity, lizards, toads, racoons, and, of course, insects. I love watching the mallards waddling through, the mourning doves teaching their young to fly off from our fence, the bunnies scurrying out from their bedroom under the deck to hop over to the neighbor’s garden for a meal, the hummingbirds making it clear to the feral cat that he is not welcome here, the bees and butterflies (far too few these days) sipping goodies from the flowers. It’s all wonderfully entertaining. It makes me feel at peace.

EXCEPT WHEN I WANT TO KILL THAT RACOON! I can put up with his paw prints circling the pool a dozen times, but I fear for my dog at night, not knowing which one would win in a confrontation. What makes me murderous, though, is what has been happening recently: little skeletons with tufts of fur attached and no flesh, strewn across the lawn. My heart broke when I saw the remains of one of my favorite animal tenants, a black squirrel who loved to run back and forth all day along the back fence.  I want to catch that critter and…and…and….

Now, wait a minute. Raccoons have to eat, too. They’re not fussy eaters and will eat plants or whatever small animals that are handy. So, what am I doing–providing habitat for a multitude of nature’s creatures or a supermarket for a raccoon?

Therein lies my dilemma. What makes the raccoon any less worthy in my mind? Aren’t the other animals and insects in my yard also eating each other? Should I put in AstroTurf and cement and plastic shrubs, forcing the carnage to go elsewhere, out of my sight?

I don’t know. I guess I’ll just have to learn to enjoy the beauty of nature without over-thinking what’s going on.  I guess I’m really just an Unsure Environmentalist.

Let’s start the week with a cartoon that pokes fun at a habit most of us have developed.

ANOTHER incident in the news of someone attacking others with a machete. On top of kids knifing each other and shooting teachers at school and people driving their vehicles into crowds, speeding off after they’ve hit someone crossing the street, or using that tonnage of metal to crash into storefronts to steal whatever they can get their hands on.

This is not a gun problem, a machete problem, or a knife problem. Nor, as statistics show, is it a mental health problem. It boils down to being a SOCIETY problem.

It has become acceptable to disagree with others not through discussion and dialog but through violence, name-calling, fact-twisting half truths, downright lies. It’s righteous to pervert our religion to allow us to violate people’s rights and humanity. It’s somehow okay for people to turn a peaceful demonstration into a riot that destroys property of people who aren’t even related to the issue. The “us vs. them” attitude has isolated us into political, ethnic, religious, ideological, and emotional groups, each ready to commit any violence that gets back at “them” just for existing.

No, it’s not the weapons that are tearing our country apart, or even the people using those weapons. It’s US, OURSELVES condoning attitudes that allow the self-destructive violence.

This Thursday Thought quote seems appropriate for today, which is National Puppy Day.