User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Lovely watching spineless GOP senators wimp out, giving in to the Trumpism that cost them control of the House, the Senate and the White House. Go for it dumb butts. Acquit the idiot who got you here, out of power in Congress and facing more losses next year:
Republicans are defending 20 Senate seats in 2022, three of them open races due to retirements (NC, OH, PA). Democrats defend 14, all held by strong incumbents. Good luck with keeping Trump in charge of your party.
“Live your life in a manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.” – Native American Proverb
During our lifetimes we say goodbye to many people, family, friends and those we only know by name and fame. This is natural and normal. Death takes all of us at some time in our lives.
Those of us who have seen a lot of loops around the Sun start noticing the increase of “names” as we keep living our lives. The slope of life makes sure of this. The longer the slope the more names we recognize with the R.I.P. after them. Of course, this does have some limits, if you have completed almost one hundred loops, there are very few close friends left around to celebrate another year of breathing.
Now is the time for Baby Boomers to start popping up daisies in the fields. We were a large bulge in the expansion of population following WWII. We also had a great number of names who had fame. Some, like Soupy Sales, were of a previous generation. Some, such as John Belushi, are of the Baby Boomer generation. We mourned their passing a while ago.
Now we are starting to see the end of the last generation leaving us and an increasing number of our own generation too. Just by having a large number of Boomers means we are going to see a lot of names in the obituaries and even the front page, and it will increase for years after us early ones have left the playing field.
I salute the very last of the Greatest Generation, my mother, the Silent Generation, and the first wave of the Baby Boomer Generation. Long may you live.
A great offering by the Youtube Algo, From YoYo Ma’s Songs of Comfort covid crises series.
Rain Falling From Roof
The music is composed by Wu Tong a Chinese musician and composer
It is performed by Wu Tong and Yo Yo Ma.
The instrument that Wu Tong is playing is the Sheng an ancient Chinese wind instrument.
A back story about the composition from the composer
There is a story that has greatly inspired me from the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 960-1127). It is about a novice Zen monk who experienced a moment of enlightenment by observing rain falling from the eaves of a roof. The story is told in the classic form of a Zen riddle. One rainy day, a novice monk asked the renowned Zen master Guixing about the fundamental meaning of Buddhism. The master pointed to the raindrops dripping from the eaves of a nearby roof. The novice monk who had been perplexed for a long time, suddenly experienced an epiphany. He immediately improvised the following koan: “Raindrops dripping from the eaves, clear sound of splitter-splatter falling on the leaves; Heaven and Earth then take a breath, for in that instant my mind is at peace.” (In this Zen koan a Chinese word representing Heaven and Earth “Qiankun” is used. This term not only refers to material existence, but also represents the concept of Yinyang, and in a Buddhist sense refers to time and space. A mind at peace is a state achieved through mediation, whereby one comes into contact with their true nature unfettered by prejudice and selfish subjectivity.) It was during a rainstorm that I first read this story. At that time, the entirety of humankind was dealing with the trials and tribulations of the coronavirus pandemic. Upon hearing the sound of the falling raindrops, I also had a realization. It was a reminder that people depend upon peaceful coexistence with each other and with Mother Nature to live in true harmony. No one exists in isolation.
