Shawnee and Thom

    I wanted to explain a couple of things that have stood out to me lately.

    American Indian or Native American tribes have had their impacts on the world. Each one has their ways and influences. Last year I learned about the three major cultures of Southeast Alaska when I visited there. One of them is the Tlingit, for example. The other two are on or in my peripheral memory. I have met and known some Tlingit people over the years, not as much with the others.

    Where I grew up in Indiana the Shawnee peoples are one of the foremost tribes that go back in the region and history. Growing up I tried to learn and read a lot about native peoples, the indigenous of the Western Hemisphere and elsewhere. It made sense to understand the world around us better by understanding some of these groups, not just traditional Western history and culture.

    I cannot recall which happened first, but my mother gave me a copy of "From Sea to Shining Sea", which is about an American family and its members that made a significant impact on our United States legacy. It is the Clark family that were Virginia gentry, then eventually provided the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Coast, a then undiscovered area, by way of the upper Inter-Mountain West Rockies.

    

    James Alexander Thom does a pretty amazing job of writing this book and others. He brings to life our shared American history. My sophomore year of high school I met Mr. Thom, who was kind enough to visit my class. I spoke to him; he was gracious and kind. He was a special person who wrote masterfully and with a profound sense of the culture of the Shawnee and other peoples in our shared history. He married Dark Rain, becoming an honorary member of the Shawnee, producing some intense and probing literature about the native tribes and the interaction with the greater cultures of our world.

    Fast forward more than three decades and I find myself in Virginia, the place of the Commonwealth of the Clarks, and friend of my full-blooded Shawnee friend from Kentucky, not too far from my hometown in southern Indiana, where Thom lived and died.

    Thom died this year in January. This year of 2023; I read up on it a few weeks ago, this spring. He lived a long life, relatively, and made an impact for the better.

    Long live his soul, his thoughts, his energies, and the Shawnee peoples.

    I think I explained what I wanted to say.

    Oh, yes, that copy of his book all about the coast to coast Clark family? It is missing by me. I think that I loaned it out, but I am not sure where or to whom. Maybe my friend who deployed to Iraq a couple times has it? Who knows? But, the book was internalized by me, and it is out there.

    Like the soul of James and others. They are looming. As the Shawnee. As the Tlingit. As the rest of us.

Definition of a Protected Vet

 

 Defending Jesus

    A lot of people on the earth are very confident in the role, purpose, and mission of Jesus Christ. It is big, it is awesome for those that believe. I am one of them.

    Jesus the Anointed One covers a lot of ground. If we have faith in Him and repent, we will have peace and will inherit a lot of rich things. If we worship Him and follow His Commands to the best of our ability, we will have everything worth having.

    If He is lying, then we have to resort to something else. Perhaps Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism, or another supernatural or cosmically divine plan would be the ticket. Atheism seems pretty harsh. It could be true, but that remains to be seen. There could be nothing else at the end of this life other than converting to other molecules.

    But for now I am firm believer that Jesus is who He says He is.

    I also believe that He has a proper authority, a priesthood, or priesthoods, that He wants us to abide by. I believe that He has apostles, and many priests, and all people share this priesthood of Him and His Father. Our Heavenly Father, who is God above.

    How does all this take shape?

    We all have to do our best to find out; try to figure out where we fit in the plan. 

    The Plan. 

    We all fit, we are all a part of it.

    We matter to Him, and He is our Savior.

    God bless us all to find and embrace these things.

  

    

Waging Wars and Battling On - Summative Poetry

    We choose our battles, while others are thrust upon us

    We travel and seek out the things that inspire and remind (us)

    Who we are. What we do. What we think and believe.

    

    Poverty, yea, hunger, is a pickle-

    Wars and battles of lifetimes and personas

    

    The endless bouts of slavery and wages and work/power struggles

    

    We visited the humble cabin of one great president, struck down in hatred,

    Whereas we pay a handsome stipend for a tour of an earlier national leader, who

    Owned hundreds, and sired children with at least one of them, a girl from youth,

    Sally, whom he convinced to return from Europe, with promise of freedom

    For their children.

    Their children.

    Theirs are ours; we have inherited a legacy of love and hate, 

    Toil and prosperity

    Powers and divisions.

    We, the greatest country in the world.

    The most powerful the world has ever seen, ever known.

    We alight the streets in rage when a poor man on drugs was abused

    Mishandled and killed by police.

    Now locked up for the foreseeable future.

    It is 2023. A cold, but sunny and somewhat restful Saturday...

    For many of us.

    Go to places on the map and there are battles:

    Israel, where settlers and residents take one another's blood

    Missiles launched

    Across the border in Syria, the factions continue to shoot and push one another.

    U.S., Russians, Turks, and Iranis push their forces

    Some might call it the Great Power Game, going on hundreds of years

    Where else?

    Fighting amongst the cartels of Mexico, which is lamentably typical

    Blood-letting among our U.S. gangs

    Shots and bullets killing more than even the active shooters

    Of which there are not a few

    There are Islamic jihadi movements in Africa, at least 10 countries

    There is the infighting of post-Western Afghanistan

    

    Some are actively writing books on such

    While the Yemeni cannot reconcile their quarrels

    Davis, Lee, and Jackson tried to keep their own lifestyle

    

    But it was not meant to be.

    Are we all power-hungry racists?

    Are we getting better at helping the least and unempowered among us?

    

    Do Marx and all the socialists have the answers?

    Does anyone?

    A religion, a leader, a movement?

    

    We will continue to wage these wars and battles for the time being.

    Wage on, soldiers and troops.

    Do your best.

What does THC do to the brain and society?

    I have been thinking about these questions a lot lately; it is helpful for me to organize my thoughts and ideas in order to take stock of what I am ideating. Perhaps it can help others.

    We know that THC within cannabis has been increasing generally, that the potency of the chemical has gone up. True?

    Does increased potency of THC (the chemical that makes marijuana mind-affecting, in many different ways) cause more extreme reactions, physical and psychological, on those that consume them?

    Makes sense, right?

    Does cannabis or THC cause the smokers or consumers of the weed to have an increased rate of psychosis? Is there scientific and medical evidence for this?

    I think so.

    Does marijuana consumption cause paranoia in the short and long terms?

    I think so.

    Do most people who become active shooters smoke dope?

    Undetermined. But, I think so. Case after case.

    People who go psychotic and kill themselves and others are prone to do these things anyway, no matter their consumption of any other stimulants or chemicals.

    Okay.

    But all these upward trends are pointing in a generally true direction.

    It seems like simple math to me, but I have not always been that great at equations or mathematics. People much smarter and keener than me should either be able to corroborate or debunk these hypotheses or ideas.

    The frustrating thing for me is that too many people advocate the alleged positive effects, both socially and economically, of the recreational use of marijuana.

    I am not talking medicinal marijuana. I am talking recreational usage. I think it is personally abusive, then it becomes a bigger problem.

    Lots of people are getting hurt. Sadly, tragically, horrifically. Almost no one talks about this.

    Television, radio, and the Internet only talk about guns.

    

    Gun control is at the root of mass shootings and active shooters? Pundits and people complain about gun laws. Not pot use. Younger ages of use, higher THC levels, more legally-aided consumption and proliferation...

    Hmmm...

The link between pot, shootings may be closer than we think (nypost.com)

"Until we understand those links, it is nuts to enact lax laws that ­encourage more young people to use a drug proven to trigger mental illness."

See the above link.

 Modern Days and the Blogger - 2023

    If Hemingway were alive, if Orwell were alive, if Steinbeck were alive, if Clemens (Twain) was alive, if Melville or Tolstoy were alive...

    What would they write? Would they be prolific like James Patterson, with paperback novels filling up the supermarket shelves? Would they be prolific essayists or op-ed writers?

    Or, would many of these great authors be reduced to so many bloggers, as the majority of the writers in the world have become?

    How many voices populate our screens and windows on the world that we know and live in?

    Millions. Perhaps not a billion. Yet.

    Spring break 2023; I have seen parts of my home state that I had not seen before. Southern hills near the Ohio River and Kentucky. We re-visited the birthplace home of Abe Lincoln. Many memories... or a few memories there. Nostalgia, on a personal level, but also speculation and contemplation on the macro-levels of our world and history.

    I slept in Asheville this evening into morning. I have family or ex-family here. We visited with the productive working niece in Hendersonville. We ate Thai food. Reminded me of my mother, of which I reminded her of, her grandmother that has been gone more than nine years. Gone for now.

    I read of my friend Robert's father dying less than a week ago, April 2; he made it to age 90. That is a good life. Way to go, George! With children (surviving) in Colorado, Pasadena, California, and Nashville, Tennessee. Ever the musician, that son. I read an interview of him online this past year or so. The obituary did not mention his wife. Perhaps he is single now. I will reach out to him and offer my condolences.

    His old best buddy, my ex-brother-in-law, is struggling and crashing on couches in the Inter-Mountain West. Down and out on the Wasatch Front.

    We have family from East to West in the United States, even a soldier nephew in South Korea.

    God bless us, every one.

    Israel and Palestine have problems this Easter weekend.

    All the service networks keep churning out their shows: we all get our entertainment fixes through multiple media sources. The kids have done it this Spring Break foray through Roku. That facilitates the media, like Psych from a decade ago.

    My dreams were affected by the show, me in Saudi Arabia or some such desert-like city environment.

    With buddies and comrades.

    We are good in North Carolina. Managed stop-lights in South Carolina, repaired a punctured tire in Georgia. Good, handy mechanics. One from the state of Mexico and the other from Michoacan. Not too bad a price, and we wound up there circuitously.

    I have email junk block, report or delete.

    I have my daughter's awesome post on "Artistic Musings" that I cannot find. Following ‹ Reader — WordPress.com My Home ‹ Artistic Musings — WordPress.com

    I have a novel to pre-clear and publish. It might be called "The Watchman: A Reflection on Afghanistan and the World that We Live In".

    We stayed at Stone Mountain, hiked it, camped and ate. And we saw and reflected on the Confederate leaders. Fading away, literally and figuratively. 

    I saw a prominent Confederate flag, I think by the side of the road in South Carolina.

    We are in the post George Floyd, post-pandemic lockdown days.

    What would all those writers be scribbling about now?

    Russia and Ukraine? Year two in that conflict. Wagner sends men to die for the Russian dreams of supremacy.

    Happy Easter. That gives many of us hope, among other things.

 Stone Mountain is a Part of Our History - Real and Present

    I visited the monument for the second time in my life. Sobering, pleasant in the present. Peaceful.

    A lot of people died violently under the power of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson.

    Millions earned their freedom by dying in the fight for the U.S. Civil War.

    Abe Lincoln wanted to maintain the Union.

    He did, and dozens of American commanders have since.

We are blessed to be free, for sure.