When I began this discussion about weather deities, I said I’d post as long as the bad weather and my interest held. When I went looking for a likely god or goddess this morning, I found I just wasn’t that into it today. My heart is heavy. I saw a news article about a poor elephant chained for 50 years and reduced to eating paper to survive. All I saw was the headline that said there was a daring rescue and he cried tears when he was free. How could I write an upbeat post after that? As a sensitive person, I guarantee it won’t ever leave my mind.
I realize that for some this next bit will sound way out there. I’m speaking on a cosmic all-things-are-connected Hermetic as-above-so-below level. You almost have to wonder about our curious empathetic species so prone to heartless cruelty. We inflict it upon one another and the creatures we share the planet with and somehow the end always, always justifies the means. We are a species whose blind consumption and locust behaviors puts us at risk for our own extinction. Yet we continue said behaviors. Why? I have no answer. We readily understand cause and effect. When you do A, you can expect B. Even a toddler gets that worked out pretty quick.
Is it possible there exists a larger link between all we do — a cause and effect payback for our lack of regard and stewardship? Our headlines are filled with catastrophic weather, seismic activity, ocean die-off, icecap melting, sea levels rising, 
plagues, disease and resistant bacteria etc. There are some days where I can hardly bear to see the headlines for all the bad news. Long ago I stopped reading the articles.
Life is a web — each strand connected to the rest, and all of our existence on this planet depends upon this balance. You simply can’t continue to break these strands and not leave the others poised to cascade. Perhaps mother nature has finally had enough of us. And who wouldn’t? We’re the species who would see the last rhino killed for his horn just so some guy in Asia can have a rhino horn placebo to maintain his erection. We’re the species who would foul precious groundwater for a few more years of fracked gas and wonder why we’re thirsty. We’re the species who would bomb one another into oblivion over ideology and chain and abuse an elephant for 50 years. Perhaps the global warming et al is just one collective fever to fight the sickness on the planet — the dangerous microbes called man.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yes, it’s all daunting, but you do have a voice. Vote. Vote like your life depends upon it, because it does. You can also get involved in many worthy causes. Start here:
http://www.nrdc.org/
http://www.savebiogems.org/
http://www.foe.org/
http://www.sierraclub.org/
http://www.worldwildlife.org/
http://www.aspca.org/
http://www.greenpeace.org/
These are just a few organizations worth your time. I have more on Pinterest. In fact, I have a lot of very cool things on Pinterest. If nothing else they are a peek inside my mind should anyone wish to go there. Think of Pinterest as an online bulletin board where you pin all the online references to things you wish to keep. Pin + Interest = Pinterest.
http://www.pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/
I have one Pinterest board where more helpful organizations are pinned. If you’re not on Pinterest, leave your email* and I’ll send you an invitation. Here’s the direct link to that board: http://www.pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/doing-good-things/
*It’s a good idea when you leave your email anywhere, that you do it like this:
myemail(@)whatever(.)com or myemail(at)whatever(dot)com
That keeps the email snatchers from stealing it and sending out spam in your name.
Online maliciousness is one more thing about mankind that just makes you scratch your head. For heaven’s sake why?
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My musings are still up on
Romance Books ‘4’ Us, do stop by.
My Family’s Living History
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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.
There are 76 entries to come.
Here’s a cliché for today:
What goes around comes around
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Book Hooks
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/
Horny Hump Day
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/
Hump Day Blurb Share
(open promo opportunity)
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/
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Today is Author Melissa Keir’s blog day
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/
The July contest is on and all the prizes go to ONE WINNER! http://www.romancebooks4us.com
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Love Waits in Unexpected Places – Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories
Find my novels wherever books are sold.
Sample my love stories for free!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971
calliopeswritingtablet.wordpress.com 
I understand how you feel, Rose. There are so many times when I forego emailing you because it is not an a ‘feel good’ story or link. I saw a story yesterday that manatees are now only a ‘threatened’ species. A small victory?
Every victory is a good one. I always appreciate hearing from you, Mike. 🙂
This is an excellent post. We are all in this together and if things stay the same we all go down together. Another cliché for those affected by the craziness of others is BOHICA (Bend over here it comes again). I already get emails almost daily from most of your list with petitions for signature and Facebook/Twitter forwarding.
About spam: In so many sites on the internet that ask for comments there are those who post negative comments just as a form of upsetting the writer and other readers. Usually they are named anonymous. If I have a comment positive or negative I always give my name. hiding behind anonymous is the mark of a bullying coward. Also on reading an online story with twenty chapters why would you say what you had spend days reading was not that good?
Thanks, Ray. I’ve never heard of BOHICA. Now that’s apropos! I get tired of picking up the gauntlet but you never can stop. It seems like everywhere you look there’s something that needs fighting for. These locusts are many.
The internet’s anonymity breeds bullies, that’s for sure. As a reader I wouldn’t suffer through a story I didn’t like just so I could tell someone it was bad from beginning to end. Life is too short!
I’m more than a few days late and dollars short, but this post of yours is such a powerful read. I’m with you all the way. I cried for that elephant, too. And all the other elephants we destroy for ivory. It’s easy to be in a grief-stricken place 24/7 on this planet these days. As a wise teacher of mine once said, “Whoever booked this trip for me is going to hear about it — I want a refund!” As another wise teacher recently said, “Don’t polarize into the despair — if you really want to make a difference to what you see and don’t like, assume and equal and opposite frame of mind and hold that vibration. They you are making change that is real, one ripple at a time.” Thanks, Rose, keep shining your light.
I wish that my celebrity was greater, not for the limelight on me, but for what celebrity can do. The little bit I have I try to use well. I wish my reach were greater. I’ll still cry for that elephant and the others. It’ll never leave me. I’ve decided to do sympathetic magic with an antique cast elephant on the table where I write. I’ve hung from his trunk is the small silver charm of l’chaim (the Hebrew toast to life) and the sacred number it adds up to –18 a blessing for a long flourishing and prosperous life. A symbol of my wishes for this tender species.
Geez, I should re-read before I hit send… “assume an equal and opposite frame of mind” and “Then you are not they you are” 🙂
I like both versions. 🙂