SHARE YOUR WORLD 7-26-2022

I’ve been feeling so guilty about all the creatures that need water and food and realizing there’s only so much I can do.

It was supposed to rain today and as usual, it was gray, humid, and dry. The clouds roll in and break up before rain falls. It’s so awfully dry. Other than the pots on the deck , there’s little (except deeply rooted trees) not brown, dead, or dying.

I’ve been reading The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman. Any illusions I had that the “pre-world-war years” were the gilded years we have come to think they were? Nope. In fact, they are shockingly similar to the way the world is now, just minus the existential and calamitous threat of climate extinction. Although they were beginning to feel it even more than 100 years ago. Habitat destruction was well underway and if the cities can be difficult now, they were much worse then. Working conditions were horrendous too.

Meanwhile, every nation was eager for war. Especially Germany, but they weren’t alone.The weather was hotter than usual. Some of the hottest summers on record were during the last decade of the 1800s. Nations were arming themselves and the air was thick with bellicose threats. There would be a war. It was only a matter of exactly who’d throw the match, when it would become official — and exactly how the various nations would align. Whatever you’ve learned about that era? It’s probably wrong.

The problem for me with reading history is knowing there won’t be a happy ending. It’s history. I know what happened. Not the war to end all wars. Frankly, I think we’ve picked up the pace of war-making.

The story of humanity is a bummer. However awful we are now, it’s not new. We have always been awful. If the climate doesn’t kill us, we’ll find some other way. As a species we’ve been marching to our doom since the world began. I think we may have finally hit the bullseye.

QUESTIONS

What mythical creature would improve the world most if it existed?

How about God? Come on down. Throw those bolts at evil-doers. I’m pretty sure that would make believers out of most of us — and it might be the last remaining hope for saving humans from our own stupidity and arrogance.

Should the death penalty be re-instated?  Why or why not?

No. I can understand wanting to see some really bad people finished off, but if we become the killers, how are we better than the ones we are killing?

Spontaneity Or Stability?

Let’s go with social spontaneity plus financial stability.

Can a dog/cat suffer? What about an ant? What about a plant? What about a bacteria cell?  Why do some humans think we’re the only species that does suffer?  Your thoughts?

I don’t know about bugs and cells, but animals suffer. Anyone who has had contact with their own pets or farm animals knows this. The irony is that some people don’t care.

A few think it’s funny and enjoy torturing animals. Maybe for them, the death penalty isn’t an entirely bad idea.

Humans are arrogant. We think we are the only feeling and thinking species. Somewhere in this huge cosmos there are bound to be other sentient beings. We just haven’t met them. Yet.

What are two things that have brightened your day today?

Good question. I was hoping for rain, but it didn’t. Oh well.

Categories: #SYW, Anecdote, Death and Dying, Myths and Fables, Share My World

Tags: #Photography, death penalty, Marilyn Armstrong, Mythical Beings, Suffering