Truss It ??

THANKFUL IS GOOD

And . . .

so is history

..

-------  

.. The bare historic bones of the first Thanksgiving are simple enough. A traditional puritan harvest celebration with neighbors. It took 250 years for it to become a national holiday - end of bare bones!
.. Beyond that bare bones history there comes a pile of erroneous mythology and contemporary historiography that amounts to the worst sort of revisionist history - just ask a 6th grader about it.
.. Three historical facts that must be kept in mind: 1) Thanksgiving was not the beginning of a long friendship between the Pilgrims and the indigenous people, 2) The settlers did not respected the indigenous peoples' unique culture or religion, 3) The interlopers learned successful agricultural practices from the indigenous people.

IT'S A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

 -----

.. We are thankful, today, about our present situation in this veil of mortal tears. We are also aware of the ramifications of Europeans entering he Americas.
.. The blood lust for riches and, the myriad underpinnings of competing religiosity swept through the two continents more rapidly and more thoroughly than any wildfire.
.. All told: hundreds of indigenous cultures were destroyed. Over 100,000,000 native Americans were killed in a matter of less than 200 years, -- (it continues to this day.)
.. As a nation we are righteously indignant about the events of 9/11. Rightly so. We are less concerned about the genocide in our history: so much so that the frontier massacres are glorified.
.. We, indeed, are thankful for today. Yet, today we are sad, embarrassed, revolted and, unhappily aware of the dark history of genocide and slavery that our thanksgiving is based on. We can not fix our nation's past sins. We can, on the other hand,  be thankful that we can make our current life one that is informed by the past.

EXCELLENT RESOURCE

>> Teaching a Lot of Misconceptions

-----

..  For the first time in over a decade we are doing a turkey for Thanksgiving. We really prefer ham or a rib roast. But the pressure of the neighborhood and it's residents have prevailed upon our oven. We have all the implements of destruction for the task. We even have a 50 year old speckled porcelain roasting pan. 
.. As the fowl thaws we are in the throes of a crucial debate -- to truss or not to truss, that is the question. More to come.

------- 

THE  SIMPLE ALCHEMY OF TIME AND TECHNIQUE

In 1941

BOMBS AWAY

Pearl Harbor Strike

impetus for war

WAKE UP CALL

-------  

.. So it came to pass that the Imperial Japanese Navy did surprise the naval base at Pearl Harbor and the air fields surrounding the town of Honolulu, Hawaii. It happened on this calendar day in 1941.

BATTLESHIP ROW - 12/07/41

.. We pass over this day if we have no connection to that time.
.. If we lost no friends or relatives - it is gone. If we forget what national imperialism is all about - it is gone.
.. If we fail to remember that nationalism carried to extreme lengths precipitates a cloistered mentality - it is gone.
.. The young forget and see few lessons to be learned. The ignorant fail to apply historical perspective to our nation at this moment in time.
.. Cogitation requires remembrance of historic social modalities and the perception of society in the moment. As a culture we have for many generations failed in the understanding of the global impact our actions as a nation.

USS VIRGINIA - 12/07/41

.. We are oblivious to the interconnections of world values, economies, religions, philosophies, alliances, climates, etc.
.. As the fattest nation on earth we are also the dumbest and most complacent in history.
.. With rising stars on all fronts it behooves us to think of our progeny.
.. Oceans do not protect us - as they did at one time. A global awareness is the only salvation of any culture, empire, national system, etc. Sad to say.

-----

.. Still too cold for us to venture far from the front porch. The kids down the block are running the only sleds in town and are buzzing to the last bits of legal open water in the estuaries of the tributaries to Hebgen Reservoir.

THE MINI MUDDLER MINNOW

.. Yes indeed Grendel, fish eat in the winter. They eat in cold water. They love the edges of the ice and seek the warmer bits of water that is slow enough to be warmed by the sun.
.. We're going to take a nap and dream of fish instead of the press of history.

------- 

WALLPAPER:  CRACKED PEPPER BUTTER GRAVY

-------

 PICK YOUR POISON