THE CLIMATE CHANGE BAROMETER

 Back in the mid seventies I bought a rhododendron for my folks anniversary. We planted it on the south east cornor of the house. It was the last to bloom and the last to bloom out. Usually about mid June.

By the mid nineties I started to notice that I was dead heading the shrub by the end of May. A full two weeks earlier. That bush became my "climate change" barometer. 

By the early teens the hot weather was arriving in early July instead of mid July. The temps were a little higher and it was lasting longer. To make it more interesting we were getting some colder spells in the winter. That last winter were were in Springfield it got to sixteen below and for the lower Willametter Valley that is COLD. 

I also learned another valuable lesson with that shrub. It's called Blue Jay. And I was told that is would live up to it's name. It's actually lavender blue. If you want it "bluer" dig in some iron sulphate around the roots. Give 'em an iou and go shopping when the plant is actually in bloom. Saves time. 

WARNING SNOWFLAKES AHEAD

You can melt one snowflake. Puy s loy of snowflakes together and you can get an avalanche or a glacier. One will get you now the other will get you later. Slowly and steadily. 

BUTTERFLY IN SPACE

 

 

The butterflynebula  loacated in the constellation Scorpius. Shot was taken by the Hubble telescope. 

Because to be honest trying to deal with that last belief about liberty in the back country brought to the colonies by the borderers and scots Irish is too damn depressing. Actually what it boils down to is what we are seeing around us. Shert definition "you have to respect my rights and I will respect yours when or if I feel like it. See you later after I spend a little time contemplating thst beauty.

AN AIRLINE WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR 2

 Originally posted on FaceBook by Rick Archer

 

Kulula is a low-cost South-African airline that doesn't take itself too seriously.

What a pity Kulula doesn't fly internationally - we should support them if only for their humour:

 

On a Kulula flight , (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want), passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing their seats, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people, we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!

 

On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies & gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."

 

And from the pilot during his welcome message:

"Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"

 

From a Kulula employee:

"Welcome aboard Kulula 271 to Port Elizabeth. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised.”

 

"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite.

 

"Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."

 

"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane"

 

"Thank you for flying Kulula . We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.”

 

As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Durban Airport, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker:

"Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

 

"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."

 

Heard on Kulula 255 just after a very hard landing in Cape Town: The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump and I know what you all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt.”

 

Overheard on a Kulula flight into Cape Town, on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Mother City. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"

 

Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal”

 

An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline". He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment.

Finally, everyone had got off except for a little old lady walking with a cane.

She said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?”

The little old lady said, "Did we land, or were we shot down?"

AN AIRLINE WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR 1

 This will take a couple of entries. These shots are of the planes of Kulula Airlines in South Africa. Unfortunately they just went out of business in May of this year due to financing problems.  Too bad, these guys and gals didn't take themselves too seriously. You have to know your audience. I really can't imagine too many of my fellow citizens appreciating their humor. I could be wrong. But I didn't come across anything in online comments that complained of lost luggae.

Anyway these are aome shots of the planes.

THE INNER LIGHT

 The map is from How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. I don't agree with all of his ideas but the map really caught my attention. The Irish called it the Three Martyrdoms. Dying for the faith, becoming a monk or nun. or going on a pilgramiage. Monks trained by Saint Columba were among the first. Monks they trained moved further on. Through northern England, nothern Europe, down to the heel of the boot in southern Italy.

Lancashire and Yorkshire, home of the Quakers. Northern Europe home to the likes of Hildegarde, Ekhart and Martin Luther. Go a little further Assissi is right in the middle of Italy between Bobbio and Rome. Assissi home of Saint Francis and his Sermon to the Birds and the Creche at Christmas.

As I worked my way through the waves of English immigrants IFischer; discovered that there’s something you can’t escape. Religious history and political history are Siamese twins. You can’t understand the one without the other. And it’s our loss.

Each section of Fischer's Albion’s Seed has maps that show which part of England the majority of the members of that migrating group came from. Most of the Quaker immigrants came from northern counties including Yorkshire and Lancashire. As I was looking the maps, the highlighted regions seemed awfully familiar. They were. The counties that were home to the majority of Quaker immigrants overlap the paths the Irish monks took on their way to Europe. A path that took them through what became northern France and southern Germany all the way to the heel of Italy’s boot.

Those monks and missionaries planted their respect for the Creator and their belief that the believer could have a direct and personal experience of God. Perhaps that belief wasn’t so unusual in mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Ekhart and Francis of Assisi. They all spoke of the Inner Light. Quakers continued the teaching and spoke of the Inner Light, but they went further in their beliefs. For a Quaker no intermediary between believer and Creator was necessary. No ordained ministers, no bishops. And at that point they parted company with just about everyone else in England. 

Like all new believers, the early Quakers were eager to share what they had experienced. They ran into immediate problems. They claimed the right to preach where they would and refused to tithe to the Anglican Church, the Established Church. Unless you accepted the 39 articles of faith you couldn't be liscensed as a doctor, lawyer, or teach in the universities. 

The preaching got them pilloried, whipped or imprisoned. The refusal to tithe led to confiscation of crops, stock and property. Often the value of what was taken was more than they owed the church. Quakers also believed in equality before God and played it out in the streets and the council chambers. They refused to take of their hats. Not even when they were before the king.  Most Quakers also refused to swear oaths. Their yea was yea and their nay was nay.

Enter William Penn. The son of an admiral in favor with the court of Charles II he converted in his early twenties. He managed to get himself arrested almost immediately for attending Quaker meetings. Young William traveled with George Fox not only in England but in Europe. He soon turned his hand to writing for the church. He turned out more than sixty pamphlets or short books, almost half of them on liberty of conscience.

One of the reasons I took more time with the Quakers had to do with a 1670 court case. Penn was arrested with William Meade and charged with preaching to a crowd of more than five people. They were denied the right to see the charges against them and the judge directed the jury to reach a verdict without the defense being allowed to present a case.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict. They were “invited” to change their verdict. The jury refused. The impasse continued over several days. When the jury continued to refuse to change their minds, the judge committed the defendants and the jury to Newgate prison. Penn and Meade for contempt and the jurors because he could I guess. 

One of the juror’s petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. After all he hadn’t committed a crime, he just refused to change his mind. Eventually, after some polite judicial back and forth over just which court he needed to go to for the writ, the writ was granted. Those justices also ruled that juries had the right to be free of intimidation. The right to habeas corpus in cases of unlawful detention was also upheld. Even though the trial was held in seventeenth century England, these rights found their way into American law.

CREATION PAST THE SIXTH DAY

 

Some of us believe it never stopped.

Before I tackle the Quakers I would like to revisit where at least some of their beliefs came from. 

 Formidable looking character isn't he? Easterners like Augustin didn't quite know what to make of the fellow from Britain. A big man, obdiously well educated. Didn't mind sharing his beliefs with anyone who would listen including basketweavers in their shops or women at their spinning wheels. Talking to women about theology! Some of the early eastern theologians weren't even sure women had souls. Certainly didn't have any busines talking about that God stuff. Remember Eve!I doubt if Pelgius ever mentioned Eve. 

 I don't remember when or how I ran into Pelagius. Briton. Might have been Welsh. Christian, but not a follower of what would become the Roman version of Christianity. He may have started out as one of the last Druids. His tonsure resembled that of the Druids, head shaved up from the ears over the forehead, hair in the back left long. Very different from the shave the top of the head that was becoming common in the rest of the growing Christian world. 

I learned to keep my curiosity to myself when out Methodist pastor made one of his rare home visits. I started to ask questions only to get "he's a heretic!" OooKaaay. Back to the internet for you. Most of what we know comes from scraps and what was written accusing him of heresy. He was not a believer in Augustin's Original Sin. He apparently believed that a person could become holy, not by grace, but by immitating Jesus as much as possible. Anyway what do I know. I only know that what has come down speaks to me. And apparently spoke to others including William Penn the Quaker and a contemporary Otrhodox bishop, Timothy Ware. I've been tap dancing on the line between conventional Christianity, whatever that is, and the still not mainline beliefs that include most Quakers and what the conventionals choos to call paganism. Whatever that means. 

Look at the animals roaming the forest: God’s spirit dwells within them.
Look at the birds flying across the sky: God’s spirit dwells within them.
Look at the tiny insects crawling in the grass: God’s spirit dwells within them.
Look at the fish in the river and sea: God’s sprit dwells within them.

There is no creature on earth in whom God is absent….When God pronounced that His creation was good it was not only that his hand had fashioned every creature; it was that His breath had brought every creature to life. Look too at the great trees of the forest; look at the wildflowers and the grass in the fields; look even at your crops. God’s spirit is present within all plants as well. The presence of God’s spirit in all living things is what makes them beautiful; and if we look with God’s eyes nothing on the earth is ugly. Attributed to Pelagius of Britain late fourth century/fifth century.

“If God were to stop speaking the whole created universe would cease to exist. In the rising of the morning sun God speaks to us of grace and new beginnings, and the fertility of the earth is a sign of how life wells up from within, from the dark unknown place of God.” Born in the early ninth century this is from the teachings of John Scotus Eriugena, John the Irishman, from Ireland. John taught that all Creation speaks to us with the voice of God. He echoed an earlier voice from the island fringes,

Pelagius was said to have claimed he'd met pagans who were better "Christians" than some Christians he had the bad luck to meet. 

And an English Orthodox bishop, Timothy Ware seems to echo the assertion of Tom Cowan, a Celtic shaman that Creation is less a bringing into existence of some “thing” from no “thing” as a reshaping. And that God can no more not create than he/she can cease to exist.

I wonder if this way of looking at the world can be traced back to the area just west of Central Asia where the Celtic tribes and the tribes that overran Greece after the age of Homer are supposed to have originated. It’s a way of looking at the world that seems almost alien. We were and are taught that God created the world. Finito. Believing that Creation is ongoing pulls the rug out of a lot of assumptions. Creation becomes fluid, Infinite. Tantalizing. Blink and the world changes.

Or careful or you might find a Goddess taking up residence in your imagination, keeping watch on the seascape until you finally answer the door. At least she had the grace not to roll her eyes with an “it’s about time.”

And some of the modern Celtic followers see Creation not as spoken but sung. A great music echoing through the Universe. If the Creator stops singing Creation stops. Now if I could just get my head back where I was going before everything went to heck a few years ago.