Flights of Fancy - Butterflies on Display

I went to Brookside gardens in Wheaton Regional Park yesterday afternoon, to see a live Butterfly exhibit. I confess I had mixed feelings about the exhibit. On the one hand the spectacle was beautiful, hundreds of different kinds of butterflies, on flowers, on trees,on fruit, fluttering through the air, and occasionally landing on us. The picture here is from the butterfly on melon collection. On the other hand as I watched the butterflies gathered at the top of the green house, perched on the netting as close as they could be to the sky, I imagined their little butterfly minds screaming we are free beings - not an "exhibit". It was Children's day at Brookside so there was a lot of chatter, squealing, movement, and excitement whenever one landed on someone. One landed on me and stayed with me for a bit of time, and I truly felt blessed. I wondered what it would be like to be there alone with all those fragile creatures fluttering about - would the peaceful energy I felt be amplified without the buffer of so many other bodies.

What I took away from the experience, was many pictures and a little video, and a desire to grow flowers that would entice these magical creatures. This is a task for my garden next year. The Brookside Garden Exhibit ends today.

Sometimes There Be Jerks in These Here Hills

When this grown man decided that it would be funny to come up behind me and try to scare me while I was telling a story during the evening's Ghost Tour, I was not amused. There I am, standing on a stone stair, when all of the sudden I hear what sounds like a firecracker behind me. Interestingly enough I wasn't frightened, felt a little startled which is good. Had I been really frightened I might have fallen off the step.

When I turned around to see what had made the sound, there was the guy who previously had been sitting with his date, high up on the pile of schist (Ellicott city granite.) By the feel of things I don't think the group I was leading was amused either. The prank bombed. I had no indication from their expressions that they saw the guy coming as they were listening closely to me. The guy wound up slinking off throwing apologies over his shoulder. I did not respond - looked at my tour group, inhaled and continued telling the story.

Someone asked me later, "does that happen often?"
Something always happens, usually it's to scare the whole group, which I don't mind, we get a laugh, catch our breath, move on. Every once in a while though folks can be jerks and my mettle is tested. I've got about 40 seconds to prevent an internal melt down. No melt down... Fortunately the stick to the script signals reached my brain in ample time tonight, the show went on, the audience was pleased.

Do We Really Want the World We Live in to be Dominated by Those who Would Wish and Perpetrate the Worst on People they Disagree With?

Clicked on this article this morning, about the Pres. photographed while talking on the phone with his feet up the desk. The soles of his shoes were facing the camera. The lead line in this piece poses the question on whether Pres. Obama is sending a Subliminal Message with the Soles of His Shoe, equating this (from my viewpoint)innocent behavior of talking on the phone with your feet up, to that Shoe Throwing Incident with the past pres.

I'm noticing a pattern in these kinds of articles, with lead phrase set up to skew one's opinion before reading the piece. That's the real subliminal message - not the fact that Pres. had his feet up on a desk. A photographer follows him around all day, takes 1000's of photos.Some days it feels as if our collective inner child has taken over with the way things/people/ways of being are scrutinized. Boundaries are a pass code- Nothing being sacred, or secret the norm rather than the exception.

This nonsense couched as "news" is an insult to progressive, thoughtful people. The poll (there’s always a poll) asks how many are insulted - 26% 100,000 clicks, were and how many weren’t 74%. The comments, unfortunately many from those folks who were insulted were mad and mean. The thing about this new culture of vitriolic, put it on cyber blast criticism, is that it easily infects those folks whose spiritual immune system is so weak that it only takes a photo to validate their feelings of hate.

I am reminded me of another time in American history where organizations like the Sovereinty Commission existed. The commission, an official agency which was based in Mississippi from 1956-1973, and funded by tax dollars, had the sole purpose to repress Black people. The guy who Murdered the guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC this month is of the same ilk as members of this Sovereignty Commission.

There's a new Code Level emerging in this age of fighting terrorism - which seems is being taken directly to the people. Check out this piece in Salon magazine which speaks directly to that notion.

I've been concerned for over ten years now, and believe more than ever, that how we assert our citizenship - our humanity during these times, will directly impact our offspring's future. Boomers the generation that is bound to the tragedies of our separate and unequal histories are far removed from the millennials whose connection to web of the digital world empowers them with the capacity to truly be transformative.

Where one group has possibly had a scarcity of information about people/cultures/ways of being different than themselves, the other knows limitless possibilities in discovery. The tension between the forces of progress and regression call us all to a kind of crucial attention. Here’s my provocative question again, do we really want the world we live in to be dominated by those who would wish and perpetrate the worst on people they disagree with?

A Random Post In The Middle of The Day

I was visiting two retired teachers, Rachel Smith and Singer Songwriter Emmalene Garrett Penn on Friday afternoon. I'd just shot a little video of Penn singing her new single Teachers' Tears, and I wanted to show them how videos can be used in websites.

When I went through the Rolodex of my mind to find something to load onto my site, Stevie Wonder's name immediately appeared. When I was child the first three albums I remember receiving were Sly and the Family Stone, The Jackson Five, and then a little later Stevie's first album. Stevie was a real miracle to me back then, still is, so much creative passion in him. Superstition is an interesting song, considering those years.

Old heads (children of immigrants and the enslaved) had barrels of superstitions which they passed down to their children, while New Age citizens were delving into metaphysics, paranormal psychology, extra terrestrial/walk-ins, and worrying about alien abductions. Those years were such a fun time for self discovery the younger boomers.

Heron at Wilde Lake

ljoyburke

While working on some projects,
I ran across these heron photos from the last season.
My mind is filled with so many distractions
wanting to just spend weeks away from the
heavy handed news, that I decided to stop
working and do a little creating

visioning that I am
wrapped in a verdant batik
listening to so many notes up lifting
smelling fragrant scents drifting
wishing for resurrections redeeming
in this troubled land of the free.