SURROUNDINGS AND PEOPLE

     Are you one of the people who are affected by the weather and no, not the twinges in the backs and knees, but the twinges in the mind and mood? I am, for I love the sun shining and the birds out there a-tweetin', and the water sparkling with the rays of the sun or even just a beautiful night for walking to shows and friends. These kinds of days and nights always put me in a good mood.
     Walking around even in interesting areas, rife with historical value and import also put me in a good mood, perhaps a more thoughtful and introspective one as I ponder my little part in all of this, but I guess that loving history since I was a kid helps me in many ways even in regular everyday life.
     So why write of this? Because it is important that we know how our surroundings affect us, our moods, our thinking. Being with people, talking and laughing together always is a wonderful thing. Humans are not meant to be hermits and even the Bible is not really approving of them, setting up rules and regulations for it. When one cuts oneself off from human contact, when one does not share anything with anyone other than oneself and perhaps a minion or two, one loses big pieces of one's humanity. When trust between people is violated and begins to disappear, that is not good news.
     And how about the physical surroundings. How can these kids living in war torn areas of the globe ever grow up normal? Living amongst ruins, of chunks of concrete, of rebar, no grass, trees splintered by mortars and rockets, with no outlet for play because there simply is no area of quiet in which to do so - what does this do them and their thinking? What about the education that goes by the board? We are raising not a generation of ignorant and uneducated kids in one country, but in many countries and it appears that the only things they learn from their environs is mistrust and distrust, hatred of any "other" not of their religion or tribe or clan or immediate family and even that has issues.
     Ugliness in Nature is reflected in ugliness in the world of man and this has been an ongoing theme since man first lifted his head up and looked outward to see things. Storms and eclipses, droughts and volcanoes all were given religious type explanations and meanings and the great writers of humankind picked up on this. It is a major theme of Shakespeare and runs through his plays, even being very specific about it in Julius Caesar.
     We owe it to ourselves and to the future of the world, of mankind, to improve our surroundings, to build a life for the next generation and teach them things other than hate and fear. They must learn that no one has privileges over any other, that going to school means learning and growing and not worrying that some terrorist army is going to break in and kill and kidnap and rape. They need to learn how to talk with and to each other, how to build a beautiful world, to right the wrongs we have done to the earth, to clear the rubble and the war torn buildings and build again, replant the fields and feed themselves and others. We need to be human in the best sense of the word.
     So why write about this? Simple. I am a citizen of the world and know that what goes on in the other side of the world affects me as well. The butterfly effect is not so foregone as to not believe in it or its meaning if not the actual butterfly! And that goes for local environs as well.
     When the local politicos care not for the people, when they can approve of development after development without hearing the people, when the head of our UCO can isolate himself in a dank room communing with his computer, his navel and who knows who or what else, but certainly not the people of the Village, when we can walk around and see our surroundings deteriorate and know that the ostensible leader has his head up his rear seeing only Wi Fi and wires and no wires and keyboards and humans very little, when the water that should be sparkling in the sun reflecting the blue sky is instead green and dank and even aromatic, shall we say, when all of this is going on, it is no wonder that we have troubles.
     More to the point, when the incumbent refuses to lift his head out of wherever he has buried it and talk with people, discuss with people, solicit advice and ideas of others, when he will think of things other than his maintaining of power as that is all he has in life, when he picks up a book, goes to a show! where he never goes, listens to a piece of music or simply joins in a conversation not about his UCO seat and reins of power - when that happens, then CVWPB will have a chance of righting our environs and living in a world once again where Nature and Man co-exist and then why, we will roll up our sleeves and try to get some intelligent people to run for office out there in that outer world, people who are not power hungry or rabid or simply not qualified for the job. Ahh, pipedreams, but why can we not try to make it so - beginning right here in the Village. How about it, David or are you too far gone to even try, so settled in your harmful and negatory manners that you cannot see the trees for the forest and only see the forest, and not the individual people and the forest has become your hunting preserve?     
     Think about it. So much of the ugliness that is in the Village has been brought about by you, with your mouth and curses, with your refusal to lead as a leader should, by inclusion rather than with end by exclusion, by the tone YOU set. Understand that, take your share of the problem on your shoulders where it belongs and then do something about it instead of hiding in the shadows or behind a table and gavel and SNIPING at people. Up to you.