Tag Archives: suspicion

The Road to Diamond, Day 162: The Incessant Rain

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

May 9, 2025, Southboro, MA- It rained all day, from Williamsport, PA to here, in a suburb of New England’s second largest city, Worcester.

The small group of teens sent two of their number to greet me, as I was fixing my coffee, in the gas station convenience store. After exchanging pleasantries, the girls went back to their group and said something on the order of, “He’s safe”. This was Newtown, where, in December of 2014, 26 people died at the hands of a lone gunman-in the school where the people gathered in the store today would have been either pre-schoolers or kindergartners. It makes sense for them to, at some level, be checking strangers for signs of either compassion or hostility. The incessant rain of fear falls even now.

A couple of workmen, still in their work uniforms, came into the laundromat where I was washing and drying my clothes, this evening. They spoke little English, but it didn’t matter to me. We were all just humans, tending to what we have been given. We were all okay with each other’s presence. It will ever be so, with me anyway. Yet, 3.5 hours away, at Delaney Hall, NJ, the sitting mayor of Newark was arrested, for having been inside a Federal detention center and protesting the random detention of people suspected of being in this country illegally. The incessant rain of distrust falls, all around us, as the rule of law is questioned.

There is no relief from the physical rain, while it does its work of cleansing and replenishing our water supply. It can bother some, while comforting others, but it will continue until it’s done with its work. There can be relief, from the rains of fear and distrust, if one takes the time to get to know those who might initially strike that fear or distrust. The caveats are that we always need to be aware of our surroundings-and take responsibility for our own safety and well-being.

The kids mentioned above might have been sizing me up to be mugged-except that they weren’t. Ditto with the two young men who had just knocked off work. Four people, in the past ten years, have had ill intentions towards me. Each one, initially, came across as friendly. The difference was that they quickly dropped their guises and variously had their hands out for money or, in one case, decided that physical assault was in order. I caught on in time, and saved life, limb and resources. Intuition and discernment are better than blanket suspicion and fear.

As I lay me down to sleep, it’s still raining outside and might still be, tomorrow. It will not be raining fear and suspicion in my heart.

The Road to 65, Mile 165: Seeds

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Slow Food Prescott, Social

May 12, 2015, Prescott-  I planted seeds of confidence in a young girl’s mind, this morning, and she guided the lot of us to revisiting a small detail, which made all the difference in a key part of the lesson.  This evening, the concept of seed banks and libraries was shared with thirty of us, who were gathered at a Slow Food chapter meeting.

I am into the sowing of seeds- of vegetables, fruit, grasses and ideas.  Sowing friendship seeds is the best such activity, and I am getting better at that.  The physical seeds will most likely wait until next Spring, but I will check the planting calendar, and see if an early July planting will work for this mountain climate. The seeds of amity can be planted anytime, and are well worth watering.  The seeds of ideas must be planted, and watered daily.

A gentleman at tonight’s meeting offered the opinion that individual seed banks are critical to preventing a USDA/Monsanto joint takeover of our food supply.  While the Feds are big on Genetically-Modified anything, I don’t see that ending well, for anyone.  Any given individual has a hundred places to hide seeds, and after all, the “success rate” of the war on drugs is not exactly earthshaking.  We who seek to grow our own food will be just fine.

This brings me to the bad seeds:  Suspicion, closed-mindedness and power-craving.  The first grows out of, and feeds, the second.  Both are a natural reaction to the the third.  The more those in authority overreach, even with the best of ill-informed intentions, the more those on the ground will push back, overreact and invite more overreach.  See the tiger, the dog, the snake chasing their tails?

Monsanto is responding to a reasonable request from the State of Vermont, to label Genetically Modified Organisms in foods sold there, by dispatching an army of attorneys, to sue, appeal and obfuscate- thus wasting millions of dollars and months of man-hours, while complaining about the cost of such labeling.  Then, there is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade Trojan horse, by which the President, and at least two of his predecessors, hope to use to force the GMO-free nations of east Asia to buckle under and get with the Monsanto program.  Go figure.

I am not against science.  The research ought to go on, move beyond monocultures and poisoning of the soil and water, and get over the idea that revenue, the building of fortunes, alone, should be the be-all and end-all of the accumulated knowledge.  We ought not eat what we can’t digest, no matter whose children are being put through college, with the generated profit.

I digress.  The seeds of knowledge, as well as those of sustenance, belong to all mankind.