We are not the center of the universe.

 Indeed.

The recent New York Times article by Natalie Angier discusses the book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer offers a not so new but refreshing view of carnivores and vegitarians/vegans.  The so-called moral dilemma of higher consciousness, murdering what we eat, and how to avoid the suffering of the object to be eaten.  

As I learned years ago, plants indeed respond to all stimuli - tactile, auditory, weather, chemicals, insects et al. This is basic biology. One of the strongest portrayals of this truth is the book by Tompkins and Bird and the movie "The Secret Life of Plants". Another great book on the macro world is "The Lives of the Cell" by Lewis Thomas. This is a fascinating book on biology, as are his other books.

Some humans have difficulty eating animals with faces, perhaps they see themselves in each cow, each chicken, each fish.  There's something primal about our response to the visual array of two eyes/nose/mouth formula. It's ingrained in our biology. But as every farmer knows, one must kill to survive.  Comedian Steven Wright once joked: I'm a vegetarian. Not because I love animals but because I hate plants."

 

Christmas makes me dizzy.

Yes it does. My brain gets stuck in the warped time/space continuum.  Christmases that I want to forget, Christmases that I wish I had, and how to avoid the current one.

There's so much build-up starting before Thanksgiving that my anxiety peaks until the dreaded day.  The sales of sales, the push to shop, to spend too much money.  It all leaves me dizzy.  

The best Christmas I ever had was in 1983.  A friends' family took me to Switzerland for a ski holiday.  Their daughter had just been busted for a DUI and it was too late for them to get a refund on the plane tickets.  Auspiscious, no?

That Christmas was enjoyable because they celebrate Christmas very quietly.  Everyone just has a nice dinner, gives a gift or two, maybe goes to church, and that's all. What a relief. Maybe we could cut back on the money aspect; just enjoy it as a warm time together. Our country couldn't do that collectively.  It's sad, really.

Dodging the bullet.

The hype is over regarding the winter storm warning. It came up through the east here, but evaporated in the atmosphere. Well, maybe next time...

Reading of the coffee grounds Part 2

You will enjoy your root canal today as it will let you experience the long forgotten joys of nitrous oxide.

All about the fire.

Yup, it's time for the woodstove. We already cleaned out the chimney a few weeks ago. Right now I'm stoking the puppy up to start burning a bunch of old useless books. I know, I feel weird about doing it. I fondly remember the book and movie Fahrenheit 451. But, old Harlequin romance paperbacks (don't worry - they weren't mine!) and 20 year-old Charlie Brown 'cyclopedias will not be missed by anyone. 
Lately the whole thing has taken on a ritualistic air for me. Burning old memories, perhaps making room for new ones. I change the pattern of the fire every day. Today's was a crosshatch arrangement. Yesterday's was a circular pile before I just started to put in as much paper as I could and still have it burn.