history Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

An Old Ent, Pondering – Photo: L. Weikel

My Ears Strain

I’m sitting here in my living room all by myself. Oddly, I’m truly alone. Spartacus is upstairs in bed with Karl, which is not all that anomalous on its own. No, what’s wigging me out just a bit is the absence of all three of our cats. I’ve no idea where any of them are. The night is quiet. In spite of the front door being flung wide open, my ears strain to hear a sound – any sound.

The stillness of this evening is so complete that even the massive, dying, pine trees across the road are failing to utter even a sigh. I squint my closed eyes. Surely a tree frog or a cricket will give a high sign of life.

Most of me revels in the blanket of silence. A smaller part, though, noticing the lack of any sound, wonders what life would be like in a cataclysm. What if everything changed over night?

Sheltered Life

At times like these I’m confronted with the shocking truth of just how sheltered a life I lead. I cannot imagine the circumstances of those living in so many regions of the world – and so many places within our own nation. If I’m honest with myself, I turn away from truly permitting myself to imagine what it’s like to have my apartment building bombed.

I turn away from even the simple act of contemplating what it must be like to have my home imploded by a tornado or devoured by a wildfire.

My thoughts, when I permit them to even skirt around those circumstances, always seem to gravitate to the irreplaceable items. Of course, that doesn’t even count the possibility of losing a loved one (human or other sentient being). I guess it all comes down to our impermanence.

The ‘irreplaceable’ items – meaning the photographs and journals, primarily – provide context to our every day lived experiences. They also provide a window into our history. Without context, we’re free agents. Free to make things up as we go along.

But do we?

I don’t know.

(T-188)

A Couple More Thoughts on the News

I’m not sure if I’ve seen yet all the comments (public and private) my post yesterday spurred. That’s because I only had a few minutes this morning to even check things out on my phone.

Amazingly, I’m only just now getting online with my laptop and it’s almost midnight.

I may have given the wrong impression last night. It crossed my mind as I was writing it, but I chose not to go into more detail at the time. I’m not sure, but it may have been a sad attempt at avoiding controversy, which is kind of dumb – especially since the actual name of my blog is Ruffled Feathers.

My News History

So let me just set the record straight:

First and probably foremost, I believe the last time I watched good ol’, actual ‘old-style’ network news was during 9/11 and a few days in its aftermath. And that was only to glean as much information as I could from a comforting, what I perceived then to be a reliable source in that moment.

Prior to and post 9/11, as my boys were growing up, we watched ‘the news’ pretty much never. This was vastly different than watching tv while I was growing up, with the John Facendas of local news at 6:00 p.m. and either Huntley and Brinkley or, of course, Walter Cronkite at 7:00 p.m., as dependable as clockwork against the backdrop of my parents and their obligatory after-work cocktail with crackers and cheese.

Ugh, I remember wishing my father would come home late and not kick me off the tv. I always had to turn Star Trek off and it was such a bummer. Of course, that was back in the day when all the good stuff I wanted to watch was on the ‘UHF’ channels of 17, 29, and 48. These three much more static-y and hard to tune in just right channels featured much more of the stuff I wanted to watch than the standard channels of 3, 6, and 10. If I’m not mistaken, channel 48 had Roller Derby. And Ultra Man.

But when Daddy got home, the television became his domain. So news it was.

Post-Marriage News Habits

On the other hand, when our guys were growing up, I do not remember watching news. In fact, I don’t remember watching much tv at all. Most of the programs I remember from their growing up years were cartoons like Power Rangers, He-Man, and Ren & Stimpy. (Yes, Ren & Stimpy. I’ve always shared a gross and some might say vulgar sense of humor with my sons.)

We also watched some of the classic night time tv shows ‘of the day,’ like Cheers and Roseanne and Murphy Brown. I remember watching the very first episode of the Simpsons, too. Hard to believe that’s still cranking out new episodes. The damn series outlived my son. Doesn’t seem right.

Another favorite to watch with my kids was Pee-Wee’s Playhouse on Saturday mornings. By the time my youngest son came along, we actually owned a VCR. So we ended up watching more movies than ever. Lion King and Toy Story were two of the best, with the dialogue-less The Snowman being one that always made me choke up.

All this to say: news via television was not a staple in our home. We did read the local newspaper and magazines.

My Current Sense of Responsibility

So when I say I feel a sense of responsibility to watch the news, I should clarify that I pretty much mean what’s going on politically. And to put a further point on that, I do feel it is my responsibility to watch some of this so that I am a well-informed voter. And to that end, since I am basically engaging in a form of tele-viewing confession, I like watching Rachel Maddow, because she goes into such depth in her stories. She puts current events into historical context in ways no other shows of that nature do. I have learned a ton of history by watching her program.

The slippery slope for me is watching the shows either before or after hers. It can get addictive. And it can become enraging or upsetting or a whole smörgåsbord of adrenalin-or-despair inducing emotions. As in everything, therefore, moderation is the key.

I whole-heartedly endorse a strict abstention from 99% of local news (not counting what you might read in print or may hear on the radio). And I feel NPR is a wonderful resource; I’m just not in my car all that often anymore, now that I no longer have a long daily commute.

While I try to limit my consumption of articles on the internet, I do confess to having subscriptions to the New York Times and a couple other publications. I try to be well-rounded (and open-minded), and even more importantly, careful not to read or pass along garbage.

The bottom line, however, is that I do feel a responsibility to remain aware and informed. NOT inflamed. And NOT propagandized (which is tough in this climate).

But every once in a while, it is a delight to completely and totally ignore what’s going on in Washington D.C., or Harrisburg, or around the world. Especially since there is a lot happening that weighs heavily on all of us. At least those of us who are paying attention.

Which I have a sneaking feeling includes most of you.

(T-983)