The Seed

The principles now planted in thy bosom will grow, and one day reach maturity, and in that maturity thou will find thy heaven or thy hell.

David Thomas
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Hello Margie
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I have a seed sitting on my kitchen window sill. It's dark brown and slightly smaller than a golf ball. I picked it up off a lush green yard in Staten Island, New York one afternoon. A botanist, perhaps a forester, might be able to tell what would grow from that seed. In fact, the yard where the seed was found had a number of tall, grand, stately trees.

I read somewhere that those seeds get planted by squirrels who bury them for the winter and then forget where they are. So if you see one of those poor critters frantically digging in the snow he's probably saying "Where the heck did I put that seed?"

The amazing thing is that everything that tree is going to be is embryonic information already contained in the seed. The seed knows just how tall the tree will be in maturity, how many branches it will have, how many leaves and other blossoms it will produce and how many seeds of it's own it will drop to the ground for the squirrels.

I have been bothered lately by the rampant immorality I see around me. I guess unethical behavior has always been in the world, but since I haven't always been in the world, it's the current crop of egregious behavior that concerns me, particularly when I see evidence of it among people I know.

Now I don't pretend tome be crystal pure, bleached white clean myself, but I have learned to monitor myself to catch it if I'm about to do or say something that smacks of dishonesty, disrespect, scorn or some other negative impulse, and if something like that sneaks through, I've learned to regret it. I've discovered that I've finally grown into some of the principles "planted in my bosom" as a child.

But, even so, my life has been good and my behavior toward others has been fair compared to what some people display, even some seniors who should know better. I once heard an executive with a very large insurance company say about a client that he didn't mind if the fellow was dishonest as long as he had a sense of humor about it. That remark made me grind my teeth. I'm in favor of humor, but I'm against dishonesty. For some people lying is a way of life. So is cheating, which is a polite word for theft.

I knew a broadcasting producer who thought nothing of stealing other people's ideas and believing that he had thought of them himself. Road rage, drugs, loud music, trashing other people's property, kidnapping children, political smear campaigns, corporate greed, terrorism, torture, mass murder. The list is endless.

I wonder what principles, if any, were placed in the hearts of those destroyers of peace, freedom and society that causes them to grow into the weeds and poison ivy of the world. What awful seed was buried in the dark ground of a youngster's mind that allows him to grow up to be a depraved, iniquitous waste, or even an otherwise nice guy who just bends the twig to suit his will with no regard for morality whatsoever.

Some religionists will say it is because of the hubris of Adam and Eve. That is an easy, quick fix non-answer and should be thrust out of the churches and synagogues.

Something should be done about it. I don';t know what to do. Maybe I should plant that seed somewhere and give the world another tall, sturdy, honest tree.

We are all leaves on the great tree that is life, all expressions of life. The seed of that tree is a good one and there is something about every leaf that is worthy of respect. I want to say to the villains of the world "Wake up and join the human race."

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Leaves

Ancient leaves, brown and wrinkled, are dancing on the sidewalk in the November wind.

Sing Along

If you are reluctant to change think of the beauty of autumn.

Unknown
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Hello Beth
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Yes, it's Autumn. Not the Fall. The Gathering. I know my name for it will never catch on, but that won't make me change my song. It's a gathering of crops, of experiences, of ideas. It's gathering up the experiences of Summer: the memories, the photographs, the new friendships. It's harvest time: the pumpkins, the squash, the corn, wood for the stove, hay for the barn. It's the gathering of ideas, of going back to school, of plans for the Winter, of investments of time and money. It's the gathering of friends and family for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah and other celebrations. It's the gathering up of the leaves in your back yard and sidewalk. As Gino, the down to earth owner of the diner in Northampton, used to joke "Yup. Mother Nature is taking off her clothes."

While the politicians on the Republican side chew each other up and spit each other out Autumn gently and surely progresses into Winter. The only thing that falls in the Fall are leaves and respect for our candidates.

Autumn, like Spring, is also a time of change, significant, graphic change. The kind of change that makes fundamental effects in the lives of real people, not the blue suit buffoonery of Washington and Wall Street. The kind of change that takes a lump of honest thought and vigorous action. The lazy days of summer and the lazy mentality of the super comfortable are over. Cold air is breathing through the cobwebs and an energetic force is announcing itself in the bright night sky. It's the force of , strong, necessary and inevitable. Singing through the bare branches of the trees is a song of freedom, a new freedom, from poverty, disease, oppression and ignorance. Freedom from the tyranny of the unchanged and unchanging. A song that is gathering voices.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
What? Give up? Never.
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AUTUMN QUESTION

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

Only 5 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I await your answers.
DB
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