The Heroic 50 --- Seeing Stars

The moment you realize you're falling on your roller skates, the Universe slows down.

As you fall through a motion all knowing, a connection to the tail bone shows the Milky Way of Stars.  For a couple of weeks, the pain is debilitation.

If you are the other side of the Cosmos of having your thumb in the dyke of the on-rushing sea, you are seeking to flood the reactor now breathing dragon fire, and carried in your work by the almost certain prospect of the end of your life as we know it on Earth.

50 Nuclear Plant workers have returned to the task of protecting an entire nation, entire world from the threat of what the Media calls a meltdown.  It would seem that they are carried on the wings of Angels, the prayers of all sober, sane folk and and the updraft of lost souls...they leap, in faith, across the chasm of a frontier unimaginable.

In Irony, the refugees endure arduous cold, seeking shelter from wind and snow of Japan's winter, yet the withering heat surrounding the power plant melts all that is, lest these Titanic 50 prevail. 

Oh, Mary, Conceived without sin,

Pray for us, who have recourse to Thee.

In these times of man pitted against man, I look to my spiritual mother - she who has come to my Sister, Catherine, with assurance that all who seek her protection will find as much therein.  The Middle East roils and rocks, yet the Far East sustains Mother Nature's urgent demonstration of unrest.  Aching hearts drive the recovery of the victins of the One/Two pummelling of the Island.

(The Beacon atop Pittsburgh's Grant Building, blinking P-i-t-t-s-b-u-r-g-h in Morse Code for 82 years changed color today, from red to green.  Saint Patrick and Huntington Bank and Tommy Knockers.)

Affirmative Action

That prayer we say to begin each day, the one that affirms "love in my heart?" ... well, as dawn caste awareness in my waking soul, I was respectful enough of my Self to admit:  I begin this day with ANGER in my heart, and affirm, with faith in your love for me, that this fuel for getting it right will sustain my efforts this day as I serve the greater good.

The Clinton's daughter has wed her love, and the photos of her big day show a "mixed" marriage of traditionals.  God; bless this lovely, gentlewoman, her mother and dad and the man to whom she has pledged herself.  I met Chelsea on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, during the 2008 Campaign, a turning point in my political life, from which I have taken indelible memories and lessons....lessons about politics, about honest work and about Affirmative Action.

With "anger" in my heart, - a small, containable speck of it in a sea of Hope, Trust and healthy respect for Force, - I begin this 1st day of August, as Ann Augustine, who lives on Augustine Lane.  I praise the Angels and gentlepeople who "taint" my countenance with a lack of naivete.   Vincentian Nuns, my grade school educators, offered - through their Patron Saint, Catherine Laboure, a promise by the Blessed Virgin, that those who seek her protection and help will receive the appropriate grace.

I carry this seed of anger, along with the seed of Light that affirms my Divinity, in balance.

1778 -- India -- Belief in protection of the animal and plant kingdom reached its apotheosis in 1778 when 294 men and 69 women laid down their lives to protect the khejri tree. A senior officer of Jodhpur state arrived to cut down the trees, which were needed for burning lime. The first to challenge him was a woman, who hugged one of the trees and was promptly decapitated. Her three daughters followed suit and were also axed. Many others followed. This mass slaughter led to a royal order that prohibited the cutting of any tree in a Bishnoi village." To this day, Bishnoi villages are wooded oases in the otherwise harsh Rajasthan desert, where wildlife congregates in proximity to the people. The Thar region of Pakistan is adjacent to the Rajasthan desert of India. Although the Thari people are now mostly Islamic, their traditional teachings about the sanctity of life somewhat resemble those of the Bishnoi. The Sindh desert is farther west in Pakistan. The Sindhi people, related to the Thari, have similar beliefs, but are now culturally divided: Sindhis who practice Hinduism long ago migrated into the Mumbai region of India, while those who practice Islam remain in Pakistan. (M. Clifton, 2007) (Note that Guha had this event in 1720 and said that hundreds of Bishnois Hindus of Khejadali went to their deaths trying to protect trees from the Maharaja of Jodhpur, who needed wood to fuel the lime kilns for cement to build his palace.)

Professional sales, dealing with Mike Hayden and my own grandchildren have taught me an irrefutable truth:  
If it works, it's adopted. 

Force, men learn, works.  Domestic Violence, they contend, is the fault of the women who "started it."  Iranian Women, the citizens chafing under Taliban Domination, the Women of India, all understand the vibe.  Socially, we reject yet foolishly, we responded to the anger in the heart of James Clyburne, Oprah Winfrey and Jessie Jackson, Jr. to elect Barack Hussein and Michelle Obama to illustrate for us, the certain bite in the ass we earn when making a decision under the influence of anger.

O Mary, Conceived without sin, pray for us, who have recourse to Thee!