It’s about 'dis trust

I spent the afternoon, a beautiful autumn afternoon, wrestling with technical issues related to music downloads from Amazon and communications, or lack thereof, between my iPhone and my iMac computer. It’s still not clear if the issues have been or can be resolved. However, I have two observations related to complicated issues that I doubt are unique to me.

1. Corporations are treating consumers more and more like “cash cows” who are only really good for being milked. I got some flat out incorrect answers from both the AI and a real(?) person in Amazon’s customer service section. I wonder how often Amazon employees try to work through cases from the outside to see what it’s like. I remember well learning about the hardest thing to do is remember what the world looked like before you knew how to do a certain thing.


2. The mis- and dis-information used too frequently by corporations and large organizations to gain or maintain an upper hand create a pervasive atmosphere of distrust that compounds the political “discourse” and power struggles that are underlying any semblance of comity and community required to avoid spreading Israel-Palestine type hostilities throughout the world. At a time that we’ve already undermined the global ecosystems on which we depend for life support, we literally can’t afford the levels of distrust we continue to create. Can we remember what it was like when people were as good as their word?

Trust

By Thomas R. Smith

It’s like so many other things in life   

to which you must say no or yes.                                    

So you take your car to the new mechanic.   

Sometimes the best thing to do is trust.   

The package left with the disreputable-looking   

clerk, the check gulped by the night deposit,   

the envelope passed by dozens of strangers—   

all show up at their intended destinations.   

The theft that could have happened doesn’t.   

Wind finally gets where it was going   

through the snowy trees, and the river, even               

when frozen, arrives at the right place.                        

And sometimes you sense how faithfully your life   

is delivered, even though you can’t read the address.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.

Mid-October #phenology

Lots of local farmers beat the storm we’ve had the last couple of days and got their crops in before the fields turned to mud. From what we’ve noticed driving around the last day or so, most of the soy bean fields and many of the corn fields have been harvested. The corn that’s still standing is looking shop worn, if that term can be applied to row crops.

St. Croix valley fall color

Photo by J. Harrington

Phase two of leaf color peak is well underway. Late September and early October brought many maples, perhaps those that had been stressed by drought and heat(?), into scarlet, yellow, and orange. Some windy days stripped those leaves and now we’re about halfway to peak color, with oaks lagging as usual. It’s hard to document, but it feels as though fall color is developing slower than normal this year, except for the early burst.

Still no signs of woolly bear worms. And, although some years we’ve had a barred owl as an October visitor in our woods, not yet this year. Also, if there’s been any major movement of waterfowl, we’ve not seen any signs around here. It is early for snow and ice, although some years we’ve had the bird bath freeze by now. It may not fit typical phenological observations, but we now have our Halloween candy in stock, although I’ll be really surprised if we get more than one Trick or Treater. Barring Halloween blizzards, we’re expecting a visit from a 3 year old Granddaughter late afternoon or early evening on the 31st.

Maybe one day next week I’ll feel energetic enough to gas up the snow blower and change the oil. I meant to last week but it seemed as if that might just be asking for trouble. At least I’m not going to leave seasonal chores hanging on having the Republicans select a Speaker of the House. That may be this year’s biggest Trick and/or Treat by Halloween.

October

By Jacob Polley

Although a tide turns in the trees 

the moon doesn't turn the leaves, 

though chimneys smoke and blue concedes 

to bluer home-time dark. 

Though restless leaves submerge the park 

in yellow shallows, ankle-deep, 

and through each tree the moon shows, halved 

or quartered or complete, 

the moon's no fruit and has no seed, 

and turns no tide of leaves on paths 

that still persist but do not lead 

where they did before dark. 

Although the moonstruck pond stares hard 

the moon looks elsewhere. Manholes breathe. 

Each mind's a different, distant world 

this same moon will not leave.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.