Me and My Llama

Monday, April 28, 2025

Remembering The Peace of Wild Things

Sitting on the porch of the place my mom has taken for a month in the Rio Grande Valley for the purpose of seeing and photographing the migrating birds, after having been here a week and finally (at least for the day, for this moment) settled in with the rhythm of the wind in the trees, I’m reminded of a Wendell Berry poem that begins with the line: “When despair for the world grows in me.”

Despair, with its tearful face, wringing its hands and crying out things in my great-great grandmother’s voice as she herself did when she would say, “God only knows when we’ll see each other again!” (She said this every single Sunday when my grandmother’s family left her house after Sunday lunch and meant it, tears, wrung hands, and all. Every. Single. Sunday.)

It's too easy to let the despair in.

Much too easy. And whether for internal or external reasons, whether rage or distress are justified, whether dissatisfaction and drive are worthy motivators, despair is a hard relative to live with. Its voice persistent. Its advice in support of hopelessness and helplessness.

And though I haven’t been quite overwhelmed by despair, it has been there, hovering, waiting.

But here, where the vermilion flycatchers, one as red as a jewel and the other dressed in colors that blend in with the trees and ground, flit and dash, snatch insects out of the air, and chase each other in their springtime wooing games, I can, like Berry, “come into the peace of wild things.”

Here, as a welcome breeze keeps the heat from becoming oppressive, I can sit outside (mosquito free) all day long while I write and “feel above me the day-blind stars.”

I had—in living the city life, in living in the thoughts within my head, in living in the skin of my own body (too often unappreciated and sometimes even despised)—almost forgotten what it is to be a part of the natural world. How lucky I’ve been in the past to have had winters and springs in the Wyoming wilderness where it was me alone with the wild things. To have explored the mountains of Colorado (my soul calls the mountains home) and stumbled upon views (and at altitudes) that took my breath away. To have wandered Norwegian forests and walked under the large Swedish sky. To have porch-sat my days away at my friend’s house in Oregon watching hummingbirds wage ferocious wars and spiders spin their webs.

I had nearly forgotten but not stopped yearning, if not for this location exactly (though it does quite nicely, after all), for places “where the wood drake rests in his beauty” and in which I could be in “the presence of still water.”

And, look, here I am, outside again, weaving words together as all around me the numerous, splendid distractions keep me lifting my eyes and turning my head to see:

the cowbird and the catbird,

the painted bunting who touches down on the table where I’m working and springboards away, the bright yellow and orange orioles with their black caps and capes,

the Texas tortoise that marches ponderously by barely sparing me a glance,

the ducks flying in formation overhead,

the rabbits, jack and cottontail,

and the single deer bounding out of sight.

And the lizards, those tiny, wingless dragons, that race across the sandy dirt, over the pottery in the flowerbeds, and sun themselves with neck-extended satisfaction in between hunting trips.

The ever-present mockingbirds, lark sparrows, white winged doves, and the pair of woodpeckers that call to each other all throughout the day as they peck any material—wood, metal, glass— to which they can put their beaks.

The butterflies that sift across the yard like tufts of cottonwood blown by the wind.

The roadrunner that comes two steps up on the porch to check me out before hopping down, lengthening its long neck, and darting away.

The reddest cardinal in the universe that makes this place its home along with the vocal great kiskadee and the bobwhite.

It is here among all this teeming, moving, abundant life that I remember that my life, too, can be a poem.

And that while there is always despair to be found, there is also peace.

Here, where my mom was generous enough to let me come along for the ride, I am reassured by the remembrance of another’s poetry and find that, as Berry so beautifully and perfectly said:

“For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

*The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/peace-wild-things-0/

To see my mom’s exquisite capturing of birds (and occasionally other things) check out her Instagram page here:

https://www.instagram.com/miscelaineously/

Monday, March 31, 2025

Any Country

Any country that abducts a man for exercising his 1^st Amendment Constitutional right is not a great country. His name is Mahmoud Khalil. He is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. He should be freed immediately.

Any country that holds people in torture conditions in ICE facilities is not a great country. To do things such as keeping the lights on at all hours, not providing blankets beyond a foil covering, not answering questions that should be answered is wrong. These are inhumane actions and unacceptable conditions for any location.

Any country that detains anyone without cause and holds them in inhumane locations under torture conditions is not a great country.

Any country that sanctions the genocide of the Palestinian people is not a great country.

Any country that sanctions the genocide of any people is not a great country.

Any country that treats legitimate travelers as enemies is not a great country.

Any country that allows the president to flagrantly dismiss and disregard the Constitution the country was built upon is not a great country.

Any country that treats people from other places as less is not a great country.

Any country that treats the poorer people of its country as less is not a great country.

Any country that breaks trust with its ally in a time of extreme need and mocks its leader is not a great country.

Any country that turns on its allies and sides with dictators is not a great country.

Any country that separates children from their parents during deportation is not a great country.

Any country that governs by fear, distrust, misinformation, and division is not a great country.

Any country that allows money to speak louder than basic, decent humanity is not a great country.

Any country that tries to erase the deeds of those who are people of color or women and only showcases white men’s exploits is not a great country.

Any country that prepares to cut health benefits to millions of people without an alternate plan in place to take care of those people with the purpose of providing trillions of dollars in tax breaks for already rich people and big corporations is not a great country.

Any country where people of a certain skin color, religion, lifestyle, and set of beliefs act as if and believe that they should have inalienable rights but those fellow citizens of different skin color, religion, lifestyles, and set of beliefs should not is not a great country.

Any country who uses punitive measures and ignores due process is not a great country.

Any country where people, for any reason, are denied the basic rights of water, food, and shelter is not a great country.

Any country that behaves as this country has behaved and is behaving towards its own citizens and the citizens of the world is not a great country.

Any country is this country and it is not great. More than that, the actions being performed will not make it great.

Monday, February 24, 2025

By the People, For the People

If my grandmother had not been cremated, she would be rolling over in her grave.

She who loved being American with every drop of blood in her body. Oh, she was so proud of our rights, our liberties, our freedoms.

Even being as well-read in history as she was, and with as much as she had seen and experienced in her ninety-one years of life, she perceived our country through rosy lenses.

For her America survived the Great Depression.

Her America was the one that had helped put an end to World War II and Nazism.

Her America, though the one that lost Vietnam and, in the process, killed her only brother, was a country that represented goodness, standing up for what was right, and those oft-cited freedoms.

“It’s our right as Americans,” she would say facetiously (and sometimes seriously) about silly things that I, wearing my jaded lenses, would grind my teeth about.

For her America, with its golden hue, was not my America.

Is not the America any of us are in now.

My grandmother’s America was a shining democracy. A country of liberty and justice. No questions about it. Cut and dried. By the people, for the people. Hallelujah. Amen.

This America – our America – is supposed to be a democratic republic.

Or a federal republic. Or a constitutional republic. Or a representative democracy.

So, yes, there’s a bit of confusion on the terms. However, the quick take-away is that our government was set up as a “form of government that involves representatives elected by the people, who execute their duties under the constraints of a prevailing constitution that specifies the powers and limits of government.”*

The powers and limits.

The bottom line is that, once upon a time, the king of England did such things as obstruct “the Administration of Justice,” make “Judges dependent on his Will alone,” and cut “off our Trade with all Parts of the World.”

Because the petitions for redress by these people (by these men, let’s be honest), were answered “only by repeated injury” the Declaration of Independence was written and signed in 1776.

(Leaving the severe issues of Imperialism and Colonialism for another time), as a result of the king’s failure to act for the good of his people, independence was sought and fought for. In that seeking and in that fight for a better government, the U.S. Constitution was written. The American Revolutionary War was fought. The articles of peace were signed on September 3, 1783.

The bottom line is that those founding fathers established a government under the strictures of the Constitution with checks and balances to ensure that no single person could decide the fate of all. No more kings. No more unchecked power. No single source of legislative, judicial, and executive power.

We are in a dangerous time where the elected leader is doing all he can to abolish and erode the constraints set forth by the Constitution. For example, the executive order to end birthright citizenship. Or the attempt to freeze monies, an action which is not within the president’s purview—according to the Constitution— but is within Congress’s. Or his repeated suggestions that he run for a third term. As if this were an option to be decided on a whim. It is not. The two-term limitation is established by the 22 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Those early people of the United States, stated very clearly in the introduction to the Constitution that their intentions were to, “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

We are their posterity.

As such, it is our responsibility to uphold the Constitution. To pay attention to what is being done especially with regard to the general welfare and domestic tranquility of our fellow citizens and countrypeople. The rule of law and democracy is not something to be disregarded.

It is the president of the United State’s duty, as per the oath of office he took when accepting his role, to ensure that he will “to the best of Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

We still live in a constitutional republic and if we want to continue to do so we must adhere to the Constitution. Even and especially the president. Even and especially those who work for his administration. Even those called in as advisers. Even and especially those elected to legislative and judicial positions.

I, for one, absolutely do not want to live in an oligarchy where the country is ruled by the few. I certainly and absolutely do not want to live in a country where that few is a handful of billionaires who do not have the interest of the common person in mind. They certainly don’t have my best interests in mind.

I do not want to live in a monarchy. If the current president’s post, in which he wrote of himself saying, “Long live the king,” was a joke, it was a joke in very poor and very unconstitutional taste. As an American under a constitutional republic governance, I do not find that funny and I do not want to be ruled by anyone.

There is a huge difference between being governed and being ruled.

I will abide being governed, I will not abide being ruled.

Yes, there is corruption in our country. Yes, there are changes that should and need to be made. But these should be made lawfully and constitutionally. They should be made with the consideration for the general welfare and with the “all” part of “all Men are created equal” very fixed in mind. And, while we are here, let us acknowledge and understand the term “Men” in “all Men” as all of humankind. All. Not only the billionaires. Not only the elected officials. Not only those whose skin is a certain color or body parts a certain shape. No, all.

If we step away from the Constitution of the United States, if we allow our laws to be overturned, overlooked, and overreached we expose ourselves to the endangerment and very real potential loss of the freedom, independence, and rights we have for so long championed, defended, and boasted about.

I would rather speak up for the Constitution now and be wrong about what is being done in this country at this time and right before my eyes than stay silent and be right.

I would rather urge us to see the opportunity we have to actually become the kind of country, the kind of democracy, the kind of republic my grandmother was so proud of.

I would rather recall Lincoln’s words of the Gettysburg Address regarding the dead from our very own Civil War, in which he said,

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,”

and remind us all of those words than pretend that I am not furious about what is happening.

We have another great task remaining before us – to defend and sustain our democratic republic.

We have allowed ourselves to be divided.

It is time to remember we are the United States of America and We Are the People.

*https://www.usconstitution.net/republic-vs-democracy/

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/10/1122089076/is-america-a-democracy-or-a-republic-yes-it-is

https://www.thoughtco.com/republic-vs-democracy-4169936

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/democracy-and-republic

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/white-papers/the-declaration-the-constitution-and-the-bill-of-rights

https://constitutionus.com/constitution/declaration-of-independence/when-did-america-gain-independence/

http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/education/all_amendments_usconst.htm

https://www.owleyes.org/text/gettysburg-address/read/text-of-lincolns-speech