A Summer's Walk 2020

Today I took my regular "Down The Southwest Road" Walk.  This road is not the road we actually use, but instead the deeded road to the Ranch.

Looking out over the Middle Meadow:

Road next to the Lower Meadow:

Bear Scat.  For comparison, this is the size of my fist:

Lower Meadow:

Most of the Spring Wild flowers are gone, but a few remain:

Always two roads diverging in the woods...:

This was clear cut for the lines two years ago.  Light and water work magic in the forest:

The blackberries are taking over:

Next to the road, this log has a series of small items on it.  I have no idea why these offerings are there:

The Creek:  Sadly this is not on our land as it is the only year round creek locally.

Heading Uphill:

A nice reminder on the side of the road:

More wildflowers:

The blackberries are starting to put on size:

Flowers waiting for the sun:

Determined Fungi slowly taking over a tree stump:

Local politicians observed at a meeting (Actually, that is a lie:  Wild Turkeys are far smarter than any politician I am aware of):

Lies And Truth

I am only vaguely aware of Claire Wolfe, a long time Libertarian (authoress, apparently, of 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution, which I have also vaguely heard of but now may have to buy).  It is the wonder of the InterWeb really: I got to there from somewhere else, which sent me to somewhere else, which sent me to her website, which left me reading their for an hour.

She, in turn, sent me to an essay by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (whom I am slightly more familiar with, although again I apparently should be more so).  Solzhenitsyn, as you may recall, is the author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a critic of the Soviet Union, sent to the gulag (1945-1953), and eventual luminary on freedom and critic of the West's failures on fredom (and perhaps, also, a prophet on what would happen after the West failed).

On February 12, 1974 (The day he was arrested and eventually sent to what was then West Germany), an essay was published by him called "Live Not By Lies" (quoted by Claire Wolfe). The essay is a quiet but strong stance about the role of the individual in a culture that is doing everything in its power to squash freedom of thought and speech and demand conformity - something, I think which many of us are familiar with.  It matches in tone some of the writings of Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident playwright who was also jailed for his beliefs and writings.

The following quotes portions, quite simply, burned a hole in my soul.

"When violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: “I am violence. Run away, make way for me—I will crush you.” But violence quickly grows old. And it has lost confidence in itself, and in order to maintain a respectable face it summons falsehood as its ally—since violence lays its ponderous paw not every day and not on every shoulder. It demands from us only obedience to lies and daily participation in lies—all loyalty lies in that.

And the simplest and most accessible key to our self-neglected liberation lies right here: Personal non-participation in lies. Though lies conceal everything, though lies embrace everything, but not with any help from me.

This opens a breach in the imaginary encirclement caused by our inaction. It is the easiest thing to do for us, but the most devastating for the lies. Because when people renounce lies it simply cuts short their existence. Like an infection, they can exist only in a living organism.

We do not exhort ourselves. We have not sufficiently matured to march into the squares and shout the truth our loud or to express aloud what we think. It's not necessary.

It's dangerous. But let us refuse to say that which we do not think.

This is our path, the easiest and most accessible one, which takes into account out inherent cowardice, already well rooted. And it is much easier—it's dangerous even to say this—than the sort of civil disobedience which Gandhi advocated.

Our path is to talk away from the gangrenous boundary. If we did not paste together the dead bones and scales of ideology, if we did not sew together the rotting rags, we would be astonished how quickly the lies would be rendered helpless and subside.

That which should be naked would then really appear naked before the whole world."

There is a problem, says Solzhenitsyn, a problem which is originally caused by violence but propagated by lies.  It is the sort of thing that civil disobedience will not solve.  But there is an easier, but more challenging path:

"So in our timidity, let each of us make a choice: Whether consciously, to remain a servant of falsehood—of course, it is not out of inclination, but to feed one's family, that one raises his children in the spirit of lies—or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect both by one's children and contemporaries.


And from that day onward he:

• Will not henceforth write, sign, or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth.
• Will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation not in the presence of many people, neither on his own behalf not at the prompting of someone else, either in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, not in a theatrical role.
  
• Will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea which he can only see is false or a distortion of the truth whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science, or music.
  
• Will not cite out of context, either orally or written, a single quotation so as to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not share completely the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue.
  
• Will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations or meetings if they are contrary to his desire or will, will neither take into hand not raise into the air a poster or slogan which he does not completely accept.
  
• Will not raise his hand to vote for a proposal with which he does not sincerely sympathize, will vote neither openly nor secretly for a person whom he considers unworthy or of doubtful abilities.
  
• Will not allow himself to be dragged to a meeting where there can be expected a forced or distorted discussion of a question. Will immediately talk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film showing if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda.
  
• Will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed. Of course we have not listed all of the possible and necessary deviations from falsehood. But a person who purifies himself will easily distinguish other instances with his purified outlook."
  

Solzhenitsyn captures the spirit of Havel's Essays collected in his book "Living in Truth:  The power that we all have as individuals, even in a world which does not allow for civil disobedience or even thinking differently, is to simply live in truth.  To propagate only truth.  To walk away - literally or figuratively - from anything and anyone which is not itself of the truth.

This is a thing you and I can do.  Think the truth.  Speak the truth.  Speak for the truth - or if unable to do so, at least not to propagate a lie.

"No, it will not be the same for everybody at first. Some, at first, will lose their jobs. For young people who want to live with truth, this will, in the beginning, complicate their young lives very much, because the required recitations are stuffed with lies, and it is necessary to make a choice.

But there are no loopholes for anybody who wants to be honest. On any given day any one of us will be confronted with at least one of the above-mentioned choices even in the most secure of the technical sciences. Either truth or falsehood: Toward spiritual independence or toward spiritual servitude.

And he who is not sufficiently courageous even to defend his soul—don't let him be proud of his “progressive” views, don't let him boast that he is an academician or a people's artist, a merited figure, or a general—let him say to himself: I am in the herd, and a coward. It's all the same to me as long as I'm fed and warm."

The whole essay is here.  It is rather worth the 10-15 minutes it will take to read it.

Speak - Live - Be - the truth.  We cannot perhaps totally stop lies, but we can at least not perpetuate them.

"And if we get cold feet, even taking this step, then we are worthless and hopeless, and the scorn of Pushkin should be directed to us:

Why should cattle have the gifts of freedom?
Their heritage from generation to generation is the belled yoke and the lash."

Dealer In Hope

As I survey the landscape of the first six months of 2020 - and what a first six months it has been! - what strikes me most of the entire situation - not just locally, or as a state or province level, or nationally, or even globally - is a complete and total lack of hope.

Quite a lot is being peddled today:  anger, rage, shame, despair, guilt, fear, hate, covetousness.  If you look at that list, you might think it favorably compares with the Seven Deadly Sins - which it does, to a point.  Voices are raised, fists are raised about what has not been done, what needs to be done, how all are failing all.

Amidst all of the above, there is simply no-one offering hope.

Groups are not offering it.  They only offer their view of the world and how others need to conform to  it or attempt to impose their moral standing upon others.

Government is not offering it.  It offers only more laws or more arguments as two sides engage in a battle of brinkmanship to seize the reins of power, titans engaged in a struggle while the rock on which the fight crumbles.

Interestingly enough, no religion is offering it either.  You would think of all groups, this would be their time to shine.  But they seem to fall into two camps:  those that have essentially become indistinguishable from the culture around them and thus only offer the view of the culture and those who may actually want to offer hope but seem very ineffectual in doing it. 

Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with the above quote - something which, frankly, surprised me as I do not typically think of him as someone who would say such a thing - but to be fair, he appeared after the Terror of The French Revolution and the Directory.  To his soldiers and the French nation, he offered hope:  Hope of a restored France (and then, of course, a French Empire, a bit less hopeful for everyone that was conquered by him). 

Where are our leaders of hope today?  To what realm have the fled?  Or is not that that they have fled, is it instead that that have reserved their message of hope for themselves and those directly around them and abandoned the larger world to its rage and wrath and violence and shame and guilt?

Or is it simply that hope is much like a butterfly that scorns the fires of wrath and violence and the hurricanes of shame and guilt and will only appear in the quiet spring of peace and quiet?  If so, I fear we will find such times will be long in coming.

High Summer

It is not quite High Summer here at The Ranch.

The pastures (really just cleared forest with local grasses but that is what we call them) are only slowly going brown, unlike the flatlands below, which have undergone their transition into the almost dead white brown of summer which will not return to another color until November.  There may be another two weeks or more before things go completely brown up here, which is late for the season.    My father's biggest hope is they do go brown and there is not another round of mowing around the house to knock the grass down, which will take the better part of  a day.

The pine and oak tress here clad the hills with their eternal brown trunks and green leaves and needles for a pleasant contrast to the slowly withering grasses.  I have become enough of a concerned citizen that I am paying attention to see if there are additional die offs due to bark beetles or fungus; so far, we seem okay this year.

The biggest difference between here and almost everywhere else I am is the wind.  Nothing but the silence of the wind as it roars through the trees. The sound is drowned out currently as my uncle works his way down the fence line and now back up with his orange riding mower, the sound dying off into the distance to a dull roars as a jet flies overhead and takes over until it, too, dies away into the wind.

The birds here fill the space between the wind, chirping away of food and territory and the sorts of things that birds sing about when it is almost July and the world is full of drying grass seeds and fat insects.

In one large clearing off of the red dirt road that heads off away from the house towards the main road (it is the official road on the deed, but we use the other road, the one that has been there for sixty years or more) a swarm of dragonflies hovers in the air - more than I can remember of late, although to honest I cannot think that I have paid attention to them all that much.  To the human eye, they appear to be dancing; to the dragonfly, fierce hunters that they are, they are looking for the next meal to dart into range.  Odd how we can have completely different views of the same event.

Sitting here in the wind swept bird filled silence with windows open in the blessedly humidity free air, the world - I hesitate to call it the "real world" because in point of fact this is the real world - falls away and becomes what it should really be.  Gone are the side by side housing and the wind that blows but not through the trees (because there are not enough trees for the wind to blow through, only our allocated 3.5) and the overwhelming sound of cars and heat radiating from the blacktop and rooftops.  Yes, the heat can be here as well, but it absorbs into the ground and air instead of hurling it back at you as an insult and challenge to the concrete and asphalt jungle that we mistakenly call "civilization".

Where I live now, High Summer is a thing to be endured.  Here, it is a celebration of the natural cycle of things.  Which of them, I wonder, is the truly "civilized" option?

A Few (More) Words From...Theodore Roosevelt

A Visit Home

So as you read this, I am on my way Home.

This is somewhat of a plan on short notice but also a logical step following my final day in my previous position:  a hard break between myself and my former reporting structure to reinforce the fact that I am no longer involved.  It is also a break which I need following four months of unanticipated stress and a long rearguard action of managing in place, waiting for a replacement to come.

What am I going to do?  I am flying back home to The Ranch to spend the better part of a week with my parents in Heaven on Earth.  I will get out to see a couple of my dear friends (oddly enough, almost all my dear friend are the ones I made in high school) and stop by my in-laws on the way back. 

I am bringing my computer along to write of course, and a stack of books for the reading and a bokuto for Iaijutsu training.  What I am not bringing is anything related to work or anything that might make me available to work or to consider work. 

I am sure we will take some drives.  I will read.  I will write.  I will think.  I will visit with old friends.  And I will ponder what the new chapter of my life means, and how I can turn this to my advantage to begin to move the needle in directions that I want to go.

The world will go on.  And for one blessed week, I will not have to.

A Sort Of Hammerfall: The Final Blow

My Continuing (and now final) Job Transition Saga:

A Sort of Hammerfall

A Sort of Hammerfall I

A Sort of Hammerfall II

A Sort of Hammerfall III

A Sort of Hammerfall IV

A Sort of Hammerfall V

A Sort of Hammerfall VI

A Sort of Hammerfall VII

A Sort of Hammerfall:  The End Is Nigh


So today is the official day:  after 18.6 years I move from Quality into a new career path in the same industry (that of Project Management, in case you were wondering).

This has been a good career field.  It has done a lot for my family:  it enabled us to buy a house (twice, actually); it enabled us to withstand a rather unfortunate career change on my part (The Firm); it enabled us to send Na Clann to good schools through High School and now has supported most of Nighean Gheal's college and the first year of Nighean Bhean's college; it paid for trips to Europe and Iceland and throughout the U.S.; it enabled me to go train (three times) in Japan for Iaijutsu even as it allowed me to buy all of the equipment to support what has become (outside of writing and learning to be self sufficient in small ways) the greatest study of my life (and, by the way, fulfilled a 10 year old boy's dream of going to Japan and being enamored of Japanese culture).

I (literally) did everything I could have done in the field.  I reached the exalted level of Vice President, which is really the terminal position in the career field (yes, you can be Senior Vice President or Executive Vice President, but that is really just degrees of difference).  And once you are there, there is no real place for you to go except to a similar position.  You cannot go "back", because people either assume you are incompetent (therefore, why would I hire you?) or just trying to find a job "until" the next executive position becomes available.

But it comes at a cost, as well.  Long days, sometimes long nights.  Constantly worrying about if you are meeting the regulations.  As a manager, people issues (I have had more people issues in the last year than I have had in the previous sixteen as a manager).  Having to answer to even more senior management who does not care why things are not done or how hard they are to accomplish, just that they are not done  And oh so many projects that were "critical" at the time but now matter not at all.

So I am ready for the change as well.

I will take my week off - free of work e-mails and concerns about what is or what is not getting done and what will be lurking for me in my in-box when I get back - and come back ready and refreshed, not just to restart the work but to restart a new career, hopefully one that is engaging and transferable and less stressful and allows me to start to prepare for the next phase of life.

It was a long time getting here and not always the best, but today is a good day.

On The Sorting Of E-mail

One of the more fascinating outcomes of my now near- imminent change in job roles is the fact that my e-mail has dropped to a trickle.

E-mail in the work environment is a funny thing.  I remember back when I first started in the industry in the mid-90's and got my first work e-mail account (on Lotus Notes, if your memory goes back that far).  It was so exciting to get those rare e-mails:  I was in!  I was in the loop!  I was cool!

And then, 20+ years of the paperless office...

By my most recent count prior to the arrival of my replacement, I was receiving 100 to 150 e-mails a day:  some that I needed to act on, a great many that people felt like I needed to be in the know (that is the great issue with e-mail:  just by adding one to a list people feel that they have informed you of the event whereas for those that receive it, it becomes just one more of many), a number of notifications (because everything electronic now notifies you of every time a change is made), and then those that were just advertisements and recruiters trying to get lucky by reaching out directly to you (as if somehow, as a manager with an HR structure in place, I could have just magically broken out of the system and called them to make a hire).  It was, frankly, rather stupid.

By contrast, I am perhaps receiving 20 to 30 e-mails a day now, perhaps 5 of which I need to act on.

As part of my transition, I am going through and filing the e-mails to that I can have the information readily available in case my replacement or former coworkers ask for it.  It is a bit of a task:   I had 68,845 e-mails in my inbox that were not categorized and I am barely to 25% of those being appropriately filed (It is a bit of a project that will now run well over my transfer). It has also been an interesting task because, much like layers in an archaeological dig, there is a rhythm and flow to the e-mails:  you can see the projects start to appear, then become of major importance and activity, and then slowly die down until they disappear - or working backwards from more recent e-mails, you follow the chain back to the original item or e-mail that started everything. 

I have never had this kind of record of my work life to review before.

The surprising thing to me has been how much I remember about them - not that I specifically remember them, but as I am reading through the e-mails how I felt about them and the situation at the time comes back to me with a surprising sense of emotion.  It is not that I had forgotten about them - which surprises me, I thought I had - as much as they were just buried beneath new layers of items needing attention.  Everything was still there, just ready to be stirred up.

I have no idea how many e-mails my new career will entail - probably more than I want or need, frankly - but I am not going to make the same mistake twice, of course:  everything gets at least assigned as soon as it comes in, and everything gets filed at that end of the day.

And, of course, no more signing up for newsletters or advertisements.  Recruiters, you have to find your inroad elsewhere.

The Death And Divorce of Nations And States

When do nations and states and empires die?

They do not necessarily die when they are attacked - Great Britain survived the Blitz.  They do not necessarily die when they are conquered - much of Western and Eastern Europe survived two world wars and the Cold War.  They do not necessarily die when they are split into smaller components - the Byzantine Empire was separated and came back together (much smaller the second time, to be sure) and the Russia of Old split and reformed into the Soviet Union and split and reformed (again) int the Commonwealth of Independent States (more or less in the same configuration as before).

They die when the idea of them dies and there is no longer a sense of "them".  That the old country is simply not worth living for (or dying for) anymore.  That no-one is a member of the British Empire or Byzantine Empire or Russian Empire but rather Welsh or Greek or Lithuanian.

The belief, of course, is that when this happens they will be replaced by something "better" - a rather nebulous term that assumes that the only thing that makes a nation or a state function is a belief in the worth of its existence and the nature of its existence.  Economy, social life, entertainment, religion - all of these are assumed to just continue on in the spirit of "one big happy family".

The reality, of course, is quite different.

When something as fundamental as a nation or a state is ended, there are really only two kinds of people:  those that rejoice in its end and those that mourn it.  Those that rejoice perhaps often feel that those who mourn will just accept it and come around to see all of the benefits and glory of the new world.  What they do not grasp is that a fundamental relationship, that of citizen to citizen, has been broken.

 If the state or nation is undermined, thereby dying, the relationship between citizens also (by default) dies:  there is neither a legal nor enduring relationship, only a proximate relationship (in this case, both parties still happen to live in the same geographic location as before).  Think of it precisely as a divorce:  two parties, once sharing everything - relationship, possessions, social life, money - are now separated by law and while they (temporarily) may live in the same house, their legal relationship as husband and wife have now ended..  They have nothing holding them together but those lesser items - possessions, social life, money.

Think of the "best" divorce you have known.  And think of the "worst" one you have known.  A great deal of that depends on the maturity of the individuals involved of course, and how bitter the divorce was.  For those that were bad, how often - if ever - does the former spouse want to associate with, speak of, or even speak of their former husband or wife?  Pretty much not at all.

When the belief that the marriage will not go farther, when the conviction sets in that there is nothing for it but separation, at that moment the concept of the marriage dies.  You cannot undermine significant parts of the relationship - by overspending, by infidelity, by constantly running down your spouse - and then expect them to joyfully still want to remain in the marriage.  In fact, in most cases they want to do nothing but get as far away from the former husband or wife as possible.

It is when the individual - or individuals - determine that they are better off by themselves or with more like minded individuals that the nation or the state dies.  And it is that moment that those that were actively pushing for its destruction are suddenly shocked to see that individual citizens are truly walking way - not just with their beliefs but with their money, their talents, their energy.  At that moment, those that are the destroyers will cry out "Where are you going?  Why are you not committed to building the glorious new structure for a bright future?  Are you so selfishly motivated as to not care about your fellow citizens?"

The response will be "Talk to my lawyer".

TB Joins The Tech World

So this weekend I paid for a VPN.

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network (Truly, I have to look these things up):

"extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. Applications running across a VPN may therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network. Encryption is a common, although not an inherent, part of a VPN connection.

VPN technology was developed to provide access to corporate applications and resources to remote or mobile users, and to branch offices. For security, the private network connection may be established using an encrypted layered tunneling protocol, and users may be required to pass various authentication methods to gain access to the VPN. In other applications, Internet users may secure their connections with a VPN to circumvent geo-restrictions and censorship or to connect to proxy servers to protect personal identity and location to stay anonymous on the Internet. Some websites, however, block access to known VPN technology to prevent the circumvention of their geo-restrictions, and many VPN providers have been developing strategies to get around these blockades." (Thanks, Wikipedia)

As I understand it, this essentially means instead of me floating around in traffic and calling from my home phone number, this helps me to essentially "call in" from an entirely different location - I can talk and interact normally, but to the larger InterWeb it appears I am actually calling in from Canada or Vietnam or Germany or wherever.

In the past I have been a great user of the "free" version of such things: so for example, I have use the free VPN function of my InterWeb browser (neither of the major players, whom I despise because they track me), free antivirus, free tracker blockers (Ghostery, which I do highly recommend), and a free optimization tool (Glarysoft, which I again recommend). Most of these have a paid alternative as well, but I have always opted out as I thought I was "safe enough".

However, given the ongoing and current state of affairs, I no longer consider that to be the case.

The software I got was from Nordic VPN and was attractive for two reasons: The first was that it came highly rated from a reliable InterWeb resource I have used in the past to assess such things, and the second was that they were running a sale (two years for the price of one - hard to argue with that).  A third selling point - once I got it - was the fact that it was incredibly easy for me, a complete novice, to set up: within 10 minutes I was safely behind the wall.

Here is an idea of what it looks like:

There I am, a happy little green dot in the middle of the US (Kansas or Nebraska, I think).

But there is a third, and slightly more concerning reason I did it: they are not based in the United States.

In reading up on them, they are surprisingly unwilling to reveal a lot about themselves. Here is their statement:

"As of 2020-06-21 we state the following:

- We have NOT received any National Security letters;
- We have NOT received any gag orders;
- We have NOT received any warrants from any government organization.

We are 100% committed to our zero-logs policy – we never log the activities of our users to ensure their ultimate privacy and security."

You may think me a bit paranoid for going to this length of action to protect myself, but to frank with you the future I see hurtling down the tracks is filled with fear and paranoia and surveillance and the writ of tyranny we see in the beginnings of "The Cancel Culture" At that time, whatever government is in power will want to know such things as where you go on the InterWeb, and whom you interact with, and what you speak of (Think I am wrong? Check into what China has already undertaken and see the future). It was for this reason I also moved the e-mail associated with the website to a server in Iceland (unseen.is, in case you are wondering).

I do not pretend to understand almost any of this. What I do understand is that an age of censorship and tyranny is rising and I need to do what I can to protect myself and be a voice of reason as long as I can. Even if that means a few more coins out of my pocket.

Cleaning Up

I had a short run through my old items on The Book of Face.

This was really prompted by a comment from Glen, something that I originally just let sit at the back of my mind but slowly worked its way to the front:  what was on there, and more importantly, what was there that could possibly become something that was an "item of interest" for some later on?  Of course, once that thought is there, there is nothing for it but to go back and look at everything.

So I quickly scanned my pictures.  Pretty much as I had thought and remembered, there is really nothing even remotely controversial there:  pictures of family, pictures of trips, pictures of my throwing and doing Iai, memes trying to inspire others.  Nothing in the least bit controversial.

Next, I looked at the other things.  I did have "notes", things that (back in the day) I had posted which were sort of "all about me" lists.  Interesting and - again - nothing particularly controversial, but I am now I am starting to view anything connected with my name as something which is potentially at risk.  So down those came.  

Going forward, of course, even less is going to show up there.  Pictures of family for birthdays and celebratory days, perhaps.  Perhaps pictures if I travel again (mostly to share with family).   But really nothing more than that any more.  

In The New Normal, exposing any information - not just opinions any more, but even likes and dislikes - leave one potentially exposed.  Better to become even more grey, even less publicly visible.  

At the rate that we are going, there will be very little that anyone is willing to discuss about themselves with people that are not extremely well vetted and well known.  Given the potential for having your life ruined for a misinterpretation, who would want to?

Nehemiah 1: 5-11

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer Your servant is praying before You day and night for Your servants, the people of Israel.

I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against You. We have acted very wickedly toward You. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws You gave your servant Moses.

Remember the instruction You gave Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to Me and obey My commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for My Name.’ They are Your servants and Your people, whom You redeemed by Your great strength and Your mighty hand.

Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of this Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who delight in revering your name. Give Your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

A Few Words From...William J.H.Boetcker

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.

And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

- William J.H. Boetcker (1873 -1962)

A Priest, A Rabbit, And A Minister...

A Sort of Hammerfall: The End Is Nigh

My Continuing Job Transition Saga:

A Sort of Hammerfall

A Sort of Hammerfall I

A Sort of Hammerfall II

A Sort of Hammerfall III

A Sort of Hammerfall IV

A Sort of Hammerfall V

A Sort of Hammerfall VI

A Sort of Hammerfall VII


So the saga seems almost to a close.  I have spoken with my new manager and with my replacements.  As of the end of this month, I will no longer be employed in the specialty of my career field. the one I have been employed in for the last 18.6 years.

In a way, it is a relief:  it will be almost four months to the day when I was informed that I would be replaced and the intervening period has really just been a place holding and rearguard exercise until the new person showed up.  Not surprisingly, they are ready to take over and be off in their new position.  Not surprisingly, I am also ready to be off and onto the next chapter of my life.

Strangely enough, I find myself a bit depressed about the whole thing.

Since my replacement's arrival, my involvement in my area of work has been declining:  Less e-mails, less meetings, less questions asked of me.  This is all understandable of course:  there is a new regime and people need to look in that direction.  But when you have been in the rising tide and fray for years and suddenly everything drops off, there is a gap.that is present, a gap of time and attention.  Suddenly, you find yourself in the eddy of the river, not in the current, slowly circling against the current.

So I will continue my transition out this week and into next week, shedding meetings and organizing e-mails in case I have to remember something from the past.  And waiting, patiently waiting, for the new world to arrive.

Social-Less Media: An Update

I thought as a public service I might update those of you who do not use Social Media in general on the current state of it - or least my interpretations thereof.

As you may recall, back in May I decided I was going to take a hiatus from Social Media.  It had become rather toxic and instead of bringing a sense of joy into my life, brought nothing but aggravation and sorrow.  I followed through with this plan, only rejoining The Book of Face on a daily basis to track the travels of The Ravishing Mrs. TB and Na Clann  as they took a week off.

As I checked in for exotic pictures of lands states far removed from where I was, I found that I still had people that opined or were combative.  The Book of Face has this interesting feature called "unfollow", wherein one can simply not see an individual's post with fully cutting all ties.  I started to use this function frequently.  My "feed" became less combative.  In theory, my stress level declined.

But I also found that many people that were neither combative nor opined frequently had also stopped using The Book of Face.  They, too, were turned away by the constant war of words that they saw and simply stopped interactions.

Instaphoto,  I thought, would be better - how bad would pictures and memes be?  I was wrong.  I dissolved my account entirely, and then dissolved my Linked Out account as well on the basis that given the current environment, removing all opportunities to inadvertently fail was better than whatever potential benefit just hanging my shingle in Cyberspace might bring.

But The Book of Face remained.  I checked the pictures every day.  The comments dwindled to pictures of cats and rabbits and postings on old role playing games or occasional pictures of people leading their lives instead of warring with words.  It had become a wasteland of sorts, driving through an electronic desert with the occasional advertising sign, slightly faded from the weather and sun as a boredom breaker.

As a result, after this weekend I returned to the occasional viewer status.  Yes, I will continue to post for things like Father's Day and Mother's Day and birthdays because I love my family. If I go somewhere, I may post pictures of that as well (here too, of course).  But the daily checking of The Book of Face has now become a thing of the past.

Bad news for The Book of Face.  If enough people decide they no longer find value there, the platform loses its value as a connecting of peoples and interests and reverts only to a sort of personal news site which, while perhaps interesting to family and friends, is hardly the sort of revenue generating giant you need with a free content base.

In the end, Social Media may end up crushing itself or creating a giant echo chamber which is of no interest to no one.  Which, if one looks back upon the history of it, may serve as the highest form of irony:  That which was meant to connect people drove them apart.

The End Of History

If you are of a certain age, you may recall a book named The End of History and The Last Man by Francis Fukuyama (Author's note:  I have not read the book, but have heard it discussed).  The point, said Fukuyama, is that the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 represented "not just..the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such:  That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

The title is the striking part , is it not? This concept that there was "an end" and that the debate was over, that history now was really an ascendancy of progress in an arc that has been predicted since the Renaissance (but, sadly, never reached).

In reality, there have been many "ends" to history.  The Tokugawa Shogunate "ended" in the Meiji Restoration of 1868;  however, many samurai that had cheered the Emperor's rise found nothing for themselves in this new world and a new end of history - The Satsuma Rebellion of 1876-1877 - ended history for them in another way.  For the Byzantine Empire, history ended twice:  the first in 1204 with the invasion of the Fourth Crusade, and then the second in 1453 when the city fell to the Ottoman Empire - which in turn had it's own history end in 1922.  The Austrian Empire "ended" in 1868 after an almost 600 year run, only to replaced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted a scant 50 years after that.  The Aztec Empire lasted from 1428 to 1521 and had the misfortune to be overtaken by the Spanish Empire on the upswing, which effectively did not end until 1976.

History ends, and has always done so.

You may recall in the past that we have discussed the difference between a nation and a state, that a nation is a body of people with three things:  a shared language, a shared culture, and a shared national origin story (for example, the Finns with the Kalevala, Iceland with its shared Book of Settlements and Sagas, the Hungarians with the Great Conquest under Arpad); while a state is a body of territory which has land and authority within that land.  You can have nation-states, Finland or Iceland being extreme examples, or you can have states with many nations, such as Switzerland or the former Czechoslovakia or the former Yugoslavia, or you can have nations without states, such as the Kurds of Iraq/Iran/Syria/Turkey or the Basques of Spain and France.

But what happens when these states or nation states no longer have the shared items that would hold them together, territory or authority or shared language/culture/origin stories?

You have the end of history.

An end of history in our own day - a rather shocking one - was the Yugoslav dissolution of 1991-2001. This represented the most violent outbreak of civil war in the West since the end of WW II (not counting the Soviet occupations of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, which were pale things at best compared to this).  This had all the complications of nations (people groups) and states within a state (in this case, historically existent areas which had been associated with those people groups).  By the time everything was over, 140,000 people had been killed, several genocidal killings had been committed, and neighbors which had existed sided by side for hundreds of years seethed across borders.

It is a useful instruction because Yugoslavia was a "created" country out of parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (A Martian No-Prize if you knew the original name of the Kingdom of the Southern Slavs!) without a shared culture, a shared language, or a shared origin story except belonging to Austria-Hungary and then being set free.  This lasted, of course, until a representative of one of those constituent groups (Slobodan Milosovic, a Serb) tried to tilt the country towards more of a nation (a greater Serbia) than a greater state (Yugoslavia).  At that point, all bets were off.

(Note: If you want to read about living through such a thing as the Siege of Sarajevo and what a civil war society in the West looks like, I highly recommend Selco Begovic's posts.  He used to have his own site but now writes at The Organic Prepper.    You might not always agree with him, but he certainly merits your pondering).

So where is this all going, you might ask?

The End of History - at least, perhaps, our End of History - may be upon is.  The bonds of shared language, shared culture, and shared origin story throughout the West have gradually washed away and are in the midst of crumbling. This should not surprise us: this always happens to great empires be they physical or cultural where there are no more boundaries to expand into and no more great untapped markets and the initial reason for its existence seems to have disappeared.  Where energy is not directed outward, it becomes directed inwards.  Where energy gets directed inward, it finds every nook and cranny where differences appears and can be exploited by the unscrupulous some of all sides and all beliefs.

Does such an End of History have to be violent?  Not always, says history:  the Czech and Slovak republics peaceful separated in 1992 without incident , and Scotland partially devolved from the United Kingdom with much less fanfare than when it was forcibly added in 1707.  And the former Soviet Union "dissolved" - perhaps not as well as it could have but certainly without the civil war that brought it into existence.  Sometimes real, thinking people realize that the End of History is upon them, that the shared bonds no longer really exist or matter, and it is simply time to call it a day and turn the page.

Endings of all things happen, whether by choice or circumstance.  It is how we handle those endings that determines whether we will meet them with grace and success or with something far less desirable.

On Focused Book Procurement

As part of my work around actively monitoring and using my spending as a tool, I have accelerated my book buying plan for the remainder of the year as well as begun to clearly define what I intend to acquire going forward.

First things First:  It turns out that the Uber Large Major Book Seller is not the only location to purchase books.  I reference you to this article 15 Best Online Bookstores for Cheap New And Used Books for a list (not noted, but one I use frequently because they have both online and brick and mortar stores is Half Price Books).  One great thing about all of these is that if you sign up, you get coupons (I just made and order where I got three books for the price of two of them and free shipping).  You might have to switch between sellers as you search because they all seems to specialize somewhat but the chase is part of the fun, at least for me.  The Uber Large Major Book Seller has now become my shopping list respository, nothing more.

As to the second part of the plan...

I have always been a voracious reader over many subjects:  History  (Japanese, Asian, Ottoman Empire, Roman, Greek, Celtic, Early and Medieval Europe, English, militaria as put forward in Osprey Publishing), Agriculture, Literature (mostly pre-20th Century), Theology, Classic Science Fiction and Fantasy, and some specialized subjects (weight training, bladed weapon training) that fall into no other category.  But now, I as look to future, I realize I have in some cases I have maxed out  the amount I am going to get from certain categories of works (for example, I have ~ 20 books that deal in whole or in part with Sparta and the Spartan regime and the pre-Alexandrian Age of Greece.  It is likely more books will not teach me more).  For others - agricultural books, for example - I should be able to run a farm of any type (almost any livestock, market gardening, field crops, specialty crops) based purely on what I have so.  So I need to focus my purchasing and reading.

My focus is now turning largely to The Classics.

By The Classics, I refer to the greats of the Ancient World:  the Greek Philosophers, the Latin Writers, the Early Church Fathers.  Thoughts and writings that we are rapidly losing our contact with because the history is "old" and not relevant to today's world (it is, really; people just do not see it that way).

The Loeb Classical Library was the brain child of James Loeb (1867-1933), a German American Banker and Philanthropist.  There are a total of 544 volumes.  The books are recognizable as they are true "pocket book sized" as well as the fact they have both the original Greek (Green) or Latin (Red) on one side and the English translation on the other (perfect for budding language practitioners in dead languages or just to have the original texts to work with).

I have many of the works covered in translated Penguin editions, (which, I might add, are great for introductions to these works - get the older translations) but am at the point of my life that the original language makes a difference to me as well.

Understand that I should not ever anticipate or plan to acquire all volumes:  There is little burning need in me to acquire the Greek and Latin Playwrights and there are some minor philosophers I have no interest in.  That said, there are worlds within worlds that remain to be discovered (instead of reading people quoting the works, it is better to go back to the works themselves).

I will be honest:  I write better and think better when I read more.  I write better and think better when I read challenging and thought provoking works, not distillation of what people think those works say.  I am enough of a mature adult that I can actively think for myself, not be talked down to or lectured.

Yes, I will always keep my eye out for a good or unusual buy:  there are still Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors of yore whose works I enjoy and do not have, occasional history or agricultural works that pique my interest, and my study of Japanese History and Swordsmanship will continue until I die.  But the my focus is shifting now.

Troubled times called for deep, well research and well reasoned responses.  We have lost this ability in our current age.  To the extent that I can, I will become better at it.

Daniel 9: 1-19

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

“Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

“Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

“Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

Yet A Few (More) Words from...Benjamin Franklin