Final Words

 

When I was a kid, I said that Jane Goodall had my job — to go to Africa and study animals.

But I was wrong. It was her job.

Field study all day, every day in the jungle? I wouldn't have the patience, skill, or fortitude to do what she did.

I would be screaming from the hilltops that it took me 6 months to get close enough to a wild troop to really study their behavior. Yet, all day, Goodall would sit or travel with her binoculars, trying to make contact with a wild troop of Chimpanzees. She spent her evenings writing up her notes.  Her hiring company knew that sending a young woman out into the jungle was unheard of, so, her mother, her number one supporter, went along. The mother would cook, and she and Jane would, ceremoniously, have a small glass of whiskey before they went to bed.

"As I traveled more, we'd each raise a glass at our respective 7 p.ms. It was a way to feel connected. Now I toast her up in the clouds every evening."—Jane Goodall.

Goodall said she knew she was safe in the jungle.

Her benefactor, Louis Leaky, curator of the Natural History Museums in Nairobi, saw in Jane, the Secretary they sent to him, the patience and love of animals he knew was necessary for the job as a field researcher. She said she was never bored. Nature provided endless entertainment.

She did what she set out to do. She made contact with the chimpanzees and changed the definition of a human being. You watch. You'll see it.

I devoured her book, In the Shadow of Man, when it came out. It was her first account of the field study and told of the time a chimpanzee, Mr. Gray Beard, came close enough to her to allow his shadow to fall upon hers. 

She declared as a child that she wanted to go to Africa and study animals. And her mother never discouraged her.

She believes that we are all put here on the earth with a purpose. We may not know what it is, but our presence matters.

Last night, my husband and I watched/listened to her last interview on Netflix. "Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall," with Brad Falchuk. They recorded the interview in March on the condition that it would only be aired after Goodall's death.

What a woman!

How can we not love the animals, and want to preserve our planet?! It seems that it isn't a priority for us anymore, but this little lady, having seen many things in her 91 years, admonished us not to lose HOPE. If we lose hope, we are lost.

We have come out of hard times before—we will come out of it again.

Notice how grand the Earth is and how thin the breathable atmosphere surrounding it is.

 

  

Our atmosphere is so thin that our mountains protrude through it to such a height that you need to carry Oxygen with you to climb Mt. Everest. ("Earth's breathable atmosphere H is about 8500 meters. Mount Everest is 8850 meters high, so it does poke out of the atmosphere, but barely.") 

A friend, who climbed to the base camp of Mt. Everest, really, she did, I was blown away, she was slight of build, one you would never guess had that fortitude, said we climbed high, slept low. In other words, they climb higher than their intended camping place, then they descended to camp so they slept at a lower altitude than the day's climb. That gave their body a chance to adapt.)

A trip up to around 10,000 feet has us breathing heavily. And Altitude sickness is a real threat.

 

Save our air. Do not pollute it. It is our life.

 

And do not die with the song within you unsung.

A Crescendo

 

A Crescendo!

Think of that swell in the Hallelujah Chorus. Remember Barbra Streisand singing "Don't Rain on My Parade?"

And then there is *A Piece of Sky.

On a boat to a new country, an immigrant belts out:

"Papa, can you hear me?"

There is something about critical mass—to hear a speech, read a book, or make a dent in a belief system —the presenters need to reach a certain decibel level.

This example may be silly, but I'm using it anyway. I was speaking with my Naturopath this week, and she asked if I was still writing.

I said, "Yes, always. A writer writes." Then I quoted some wise writer who said, "I'm a writer like a dog is a dog. It doesn't mean I'm a good dog."

(I don't know who first said that.)

She laughed. I could see that she viewed me as a nice little writer, so I said, "I keep a blog going. Last month, I reached the one million page views mark."

Suddenly, she became animated and began congratulating me. I'm happy about my views.  I am grateful to all the readers who came to my site.

 I saw that the one million views were a decibel level that got her attention.

LOUD! A Crescendo!

It took a company slamming down the Jimmy Kimmel show to get people's attention regarding censorship. Boy howdy, people rallied. Even people who didn't like Kimmel wanted to preserve his First Amendment right to free speech.

Criticize the President?

Oh no.  

For heaven's sake, political cartoonists and comedians have criticized the President since the time of George Washington, and those Presidents probably didn't like it but took it in stride.

Political cartoonists and comedians are holding up a mirror to our times, they are forging the political waters, and trying to inject some humor into the mix.

Most people are aware that our current President is amoral, but that doesn't matter. He promotes their agenda.  

I finally got why he is President.

 

"The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means."

 –George Bernanos.

 

The conspiracy theorists and anti-vax proponents liked RFK, and the President opened the door for him. The debate over whether to vaccinate or not to vaccinate divided us. Instead of working together, hiring legitimate scientists who have no agenda except to find the truth. (Yep, I know, and to keep their jobs. Security comes first.)  Allow the researchers to study the situation and present their findings to us.

We need to study that damn COVID situation. Instead, it broke us.

Instead, we got lies, half-truths, and anecdotal evidence, with even the medical community operating in the dark.

We needed a Leader who would unite us, one who would give us courage to carry on, and what did we get?

The opposite.

The billionaires like him because they get richer. The President somehow got immunity, almost supreme power. (I guess no one considered that it would pass to the next person in line, who they might disagree with.) That baffles me, but I digress.

The present administration stacked the Supreme Court in its favor. He stacked the House and Congress. The Militant among us likes to kick butt. The Archie Bunker types among us like that; he says what he thinks without any diplomacy or apparent kindness. The White Supremacists like him because he promotes racism. Those who want to rid the country of Immigrants like him because he wants to sweep them away and leave us pure and white. The Christians like him because he claims to be a Christian, and they want a Christian Country. The people who believe in the Armageddon wish to bring about an end-war, so the people who do not think as they do will be swept away, and they will rule the earth.

Elon Musk virtually bought the Presidency for T, and both were in danger of indictments. You figure that one out.

And the first thing RFK does is blame women for taking a painkiller prescribed by their doctors. Women had long been blamed for autism. Every caring pregnant woman worries about doing the right thing for her baby.  It is a vulnerable time.

If RFK really wants to make us healthy, he would ban the use of Roundup on mature wheat—and other grains. 

Farmers spray wheat with Roundup to make it less susceptible to moisture.

I've wondered why so many people are troubled by the eating of wheat—The Staff of life—the substance that has kept people alive for eons. Have you ever heard of a diet of bread and water that kept individuals alive?

Many people claim to be gluten intolerant. Is gluten the culprit?

I contacted Bob's Red Mill and found that they make every effort to avoid using wheat that is contaminated with glyphosate, the active herbicide ingredient in Roundup. (It is hard to remain purely organic, for sometimes they get a drift from neighboring fields.)

There is one company that claims to be absolutely Roundup-free.

That company that is guaranteed Glyphosate-free is:

 “One Degree Organic Foods (Displaying the BioChecked Non-Glyphosate Certified logo on our packaging is not a one-time thing—it is an ongoing commitment. We have one random sample from a specific oat farmer tested every month to make sure we continue to meet this standard.) “

I don't know how we are going to get out of our present situation, but I trust the integrity of the American People. And I know we need someone—a Leader—to unite us, not separate us.

We have scientists who want to get as close to the truth as possible. Medical professionals aim to promote health. Freedom-loving people want to see that people first have their basic needs met, including food, shelter, safety, and a means to support themselves. Then we can discuss philosophy, theology, whatever ologies.  Until then, it's a struggle.

The United States used to be strong in its middle class. We could count on them. What happened?

The voices of discontent are getting LOUDER. NO King! No dictator. No 2025 Playbook.

Little voices together can raise a ruckus.

Let's refrain from making any purchases on October 18, the day of the "No King March."

Get out. Make yourselves heard.

Create a Crescendo.

"Why settle for just a piece of sky?"

*Papa, can you hear me?!"