The Season

It struck me funny that even on a supposed holiday, there were people upset on the internet. The moveable feast that is Easter landed on March 31 this year. It is a floating holiday. Next year it is going to land on April 20, which amuses me for an entirely different set , but obvious, reasons.

The reason for upset, this time, was that the International Day of Transgender Visibility fell on March 31, as it has since its inception. Now, Easter is a curious random catch-all. While basically admitting anything is possible, Easter strikes me as a bit of an amalgamated holiday, swiping a little here, a little there. “Oestre, the Goddess of Light, brings fertility with the spring. This is the root of the word oestrus, the time of an animals sexual cycle when it is fertile, and oestrogen is the hormone stimulating ovulation. The Church overlaid this festival with Easter and it’s theme of rebirth and resurrection from death. It’s timing is based on the old lunar calendar : the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, formerly the pregnant phase of Oestre passing into the fertile season.” [Source: Sacred Celebrations by Glennie Kindred.]

I included this not to insult observers, but to point out that customs and rituals are something get seriously fetished.

That’s all fine. Whatever you do in your house, you do, you know, you. It just seems the whole thing and its theme of rebirth was more convenient than actually factual. But if you dig story, cool. Have at it. Seems little odd that since that date has some flux to it, it seems a little strict to think of it so sacrosanct to not raise the point that if there was a resurrection, that would be a rather fixed point not something that would flow.

Setting all that aside, wouldn’t follow that the faith that espouses loving thy neighbor (without anything restrictive in that language) have no problem with the fixed on the calendar recognition of all people. Either we love our neighbors or we are picking and choosing tenets to go with it. That doesn’t seem to be, well kosher. For the imbecility of “all lives matter” or “when’s straight person’s day,” none of those jamokes take a moment to think that days like the Trans Day of Visibility are needed because they are yet another part of the population that gets minimalized, persecuted and worse.

The folks upset about Easter and Visibility Day landing on the same day are looking for something to get upset about. How their Easter gets wrecked by something, that isn’t happening in their house, escapes me and is largely a figment of the distorted imaginations of these easily threatened people.

Whenever Love thy Neighbor is printed, it is never followed by “but only if they agree with you and live your way.” I read one post where the writer said he was insulted the occasions landed on the same day. Life needs to be a little more complicated if he is that easily thrown.

We do need to take better care of ourselves and each other. No additional clauses to tacked on. We need to take better care of each other, without disclaimer, fear, bigotry as we are all just people, But in the meantime, I can’t wait to see the posts about Easter and 420 next year, Light em up!

And in the meantime, let’s be kind and take care of each other, without any disclaimers.

Snow

That four letter word. I both love it and hate it. It makes people do some odd things and take some bizarre actions.

This dawned on me as i watched a person in midphone call cross an active street with the remnants of 5 days of lake effect snow was finally slowing down, but it adds an extra variable when you aren’t crossing at the light.

You get an interesting snap shot of how businesses and municipalities prioritize snow clean up. My landlord did send plows and shovels after the first day, but a foot or so more has fallen since then. Mountain climbing pitons might have been helpful in taking out the trash this morning. There is a private club on the next block on my street. They dutiful plowed their parking lot so all the volvo suvs can get in, but ignored their front walk. I guess they dont want to serve pedestrians, icy sidewalks preserve the membership status quo.

For an area filled with snow experience, we are prone to what is or isnt happening out my window must be the gospel for all.

The social media griping about the moving of the Bills playoff game and the Sabres game were impressive and gobsmacking. One exchange highlighted the need or lack of need for a driving ban in an area. The pro driving ban poster showed that travel was treacherous in a large area and perhaps a ban would curtail traffic feeding into that area. The anti said since he saw nothing that perhaps it wasn’t really needed.

Seeing the whole board is a good thing. The stoppages do stink. I read another series of posts complaining that authorities were overreaching in the name of safety. It wasn’t like this back “in the day.” Well, climate change shifted that.

Driving home through a white out yesterday morning was an adventure, but i was glad my company encouraged safety. Again, you got windows in snow attitudes. As the storm picked up, the powers that were busy clearing, the suburb where it sits worked to get down to pavement this morning, The city next to the suburb was not as precise but things could move. Only place where shovels weren’t moving was my landlord’s property but i was able to move.

Might have to celebrate that and make a snow fort.

Handlebar Sun

The view from the bar, the handlebar, is very soothing in these fractious times.

Bystanders

The war between Israel and Hamas. I wrote that sentences and paused because i don’t know how you follow that up. The two sides are engaged in something of which there will be no winners, just a matter of who made the rubble bounce higher.

I think of the people who went to hear music, only to not come home, the hostages who, if they do get home, are forever scarred, the Israeli and Palestinian people who live in Gaza having their existences eradicated.

Cease Fire. That seems to be a bone of contention. As I write this, they are in the midst of a four day ceasefire. Hamas could be reloading. The Nettanyahou government could be doing the same. I suppose a pause in the destruction is a good thing, but it seems like there should be more. Something more substantive that just leveling Gaza and more death amount bystanders.

There is a line that I have been thinking about. It is from a very old episode of Mash where Hawkeye is describing that for all the people who say War is Hell are wrong, that war is war and hell is hell and of the two war is worse. The reasoning being is that sinners deserve hell, but war is full of bystanders who take the bulk of the damage. The decision makers stay above the fray. Hell has no bystanders, but war is full of them.

The senselessness is staggering. I saw a video of Dave Matthews telling a concert audience of a little girl in Gaza, letting herself smile as she tasted the rain without any interference.

Hope that can be less of a rarity.

 

Peace in Our Time

It isn’t hard to realize that the times we are living in are especially fractious. The Hamas intrusion into Israel reminded me of a scene in an episode of the West Wing where the fictional CIA missed a troop buildup on a border between two hostile nations except President Barlet and Leo McGarray aren’t going to fix this very real and tragic collection of events.

Good job hanging in there on these infographics. I felt they do a good job of summoning why war has never left the fabric of life in and around Israel. Our congress has gone even further to make itself inert just when the world is on fire. I would step in front of a train while taking bullets for my children. I can’t imagine the pain of seeing your child brutally carted away as attendees of a music festival wound in the Israel desert wound up experiencing. Hamas committed a slews of acts of Terrorism, and the Israeli government is set to teach Hamas a lesson. The government directed civilians to leave Gaza (roughly the size of Philadelphia) and there isn’t an open spot to go as I write this. Scared for what has happened and what is about to occur. The ramifications make my head and heart ache.

This bit for Mash seems prophetic:

Hawkeye:
War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy:
How do you figure, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye:
Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy:
Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye:
Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them – little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

Peace in our time seems like a stretch as the horrible is only going to increase in volume.

I really hope the volume can be turned down.

Lift your arms up to the sky

Misappropriated REM lyrics aside, there is something about the sunsets around here

Buy the sky…

Sell the sky

And bleed the sky

And tell the sky

Don’t fall on me

Fall on me

Well i would keep it above but then it wouldn’t be sky any more

So if i send it to you you’ve got to promise to keep it him.

Crosstown Traffic

A recent daytrip got me contemplating how we get about. The bulk of my siblings and I were returning from a trip to Toronto where about two miles from crossing back into the U.S. traffic stopped. On this road, the left lane was set to queue up to the Rainbow Bridge and the right was for the duty free shop and presumably the rest of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Drivers, being the selfish, me first, lazy lot that we are, revealed true colors quickly enough. With just enough folks clogging things up, the delay got that much longer.

Dan Rather was right, provided he said it, when he noted that americans will pit with a lot except with what they want to do in traffic.

We all need to look out for each other, not just motorcycles in spring, but drivers, pedestrians taking phone calls while they are crossing the street, motorists with ear buds, cyclists with speakers, everybody.

We could all improve. Close calls happen way too often. I have made mistakes operating my car and my bike. I’m making to learn and not repeat

GoBike Buffalo launched a pilot project to see if changes in a very oddly shaped intersection could make things a little safer for, get this, everybody. The research they outlined sets up more space for pedestrian, bike lanes and makes the intersection in question seem less like Nuremberg ring and more like the city streets they are.

The reaction to this testing is pretty predictable with internet wags taking to their keyboards to decry the appearance, the inconvenience, how bad it will be when school buses come back and, my favorite, the roads are for cars, man, period.

I started writing about how the internet is ruining our ability to research and find things out. Some temporary research has folks in a dither, that their road style is going to be cramped. With deaths and injuries at all time highs, our road style could use a little cramping.

At no point did the DMV promise us a lot of laughs behind the wheel and there is a reason our parents told us to look both ways when crossing the street (they might be driving through)

Let’s all look out.

Seems simple…ish

Sundown

I might have a thing for the beauty of sunsets

There is something centering, calming in the beautiful stillness. In a world that steadfastly refuses to shut up, it’s pretty soothing. If you can excuse the handlebar photography, I think you see what i mean.

Pizza Ephihanies

It wasn’t perfect, but stumbling across seemed like a good idea and yep, it hit the spot

The right thing made for you can make up for a number of sins. In this case, it was a work day that went on for more that two hours than it should have, spoiling initial bike touring plans, but it turned out all was not lost as i headed out anyway.

A good ride can summon some peace and give your mental rolodex a chance to slow down.

One of my favorite things, because of the calm involved is watching a quality sunset

The calm in that gives you a chance to shut off the noise that can chase you through the day and sort the various mental post it notes that can accumulate. And that can take some doing, but the miles add up.

It’s a good thing too, as calm is needed. Everywhere.

You would think once you hit pause, stop would be the next logical thing, but after a few days of Peace, Hamas leadership and the Israeli Government are back to seeing how high they can blow each other up. Civilian Palestinians and Israelis were told to head south to stay out of harms way. The harm as I write this on 12/3 has followed south. The land is eviserated and bystanders, non-combatants are dying in grossly unaccessible numbers.

It is a lousy state.

In the blink of an eye

I have written previously about slowing down a bit and taking a more concise look around. It helps appreciate what is out there. Here’s some of the sights and colors from some recent pedaling.