"In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
between the crosses, row on row, that mark our place;
and in the sky, the larks - still bravely singing - fly
scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you, from failing hands, we throw
the torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die,
we shall not sleep, though poppies grow
in Flanders Fields.

Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD
( 1872 - 1918 )

"No Casket For Me Please"

Lay me down in a bed of grass

when my body dies, that it may pass

deep into the essence of

this glorious earth I do so love.

But until that time:

My heart gives rise to the high places,

how transcendent is God in these spaces!

Where trickster breezes weave through my hair

and the miracles of life are everywhere.

Then soon:

As a falling leaf, my cheek it doth kiss

this life I know I'll sorely miss;

so when you note my long, last nod,

just place me in the soft, green sod.

By Cathy S. Rapicano - June 4, 2006

Day Of The Beloved Dead

Celebrating and recalling our dead is a proclamation to LIFE would you not agree? Don't we speak to our loved ones, departed from their earthly shackles and shame, now on another plane, a dimension far beyond our comprehension? Deep in your secret heart, are you not happy for their victory?
I know I talk to those I've lost to the next life.
Not lost to death.
To the NEXT LIFE.
The next step.
And today 11-2 is All Soul's Day, a time to celebrate the glory of the lives gone on ahead of us. Not death. It is not for a fool's use, not for a religious scheme.

Although it has its origins in the catholic faith, many varied ways of celebrating this feast have long departed from the standard religious "prayerful" tradition.
Today people gather to make skulls from candy, bring baskets of fruit to the cemetery in offering and joy as they remember those they love, they dress up and in some places special caves are kept where the skulls of ancestors are kept, in proper decorum. A far cry from the Western view of a dead body, eh?
I like this one better.
My loved ones were not the sum of their bodily parts. They had emotions and ideas. They had LOVE. They had LIFE. And this is the day I intend to honor that life.

Hitler's Hallowe'en

I'd like to share something I posted in 2006 and get your input.

On the morning's news I heard how a high school across the river in New York allowed its students to come to school in costume yesterday. Mostly pirates, a few Gene Simmons' and one in particular which gave the principal another 100 gray hairs. A senior came as Hitler. The whole get-up, Chaplin moustache swastikas all over his sharply pressed uniform, riding crop in hand, high leather boots ... the teachers were in cardiac hyper-mode, many fellow students duly outraged and of course, it made the news. Adults weren't sure to look at him or not. It raised a visceral disgust we all understand. The young man explained he was a "parody" of a famous person from history, what's the problem? And indeed, after pow-wowing this matter a bit, the principal could not get the boy to please either change or leave, he was being "offensive and disruptive".

They asked if his parents knew; he proudly exclaimed they DID and supported his "courage" in exercising his right to free speech, freedom of expression, all those good "frees". So basically they were raising their son to ignore everything they saw and heard unless it adhered to his right to freedom of expression. Pretty shallow. We don't live in a vacuum.

But I heard something at the end of the broadcast which made me think (I dared myself). At the end of the day, the young man took off his gear, put on a large coat and made his way to the subway which he used to get home. Isn't that odd?

Every other kid went home in costume, since that's how they arrived. But this one didn't, something inside him KNEW he couldn't get on that subway, with adults instead of teens, with real people he didn't know, dressed as "a person of history" responsible for so much anguish and blood-letting and pain that it hurts just to think about. He KNEW someone on that train might even be one of the slowly dying-out survivors of the holocaust, exactly what would he say to THAT person? So he KNEW. He knew something his parents forgot.

And I lay this at their feet. Do you think this teen will ever understand the difference between an indecent act and just plain cruelty? Not if his home environment tells him the First Amendment is more important than abusing those same rights. It's ludicrous. We have rights to be decent people.

When a teen does something outrageous like this, I think he's really just acting with the arrogance of his youth, doesn't see the hideousness of parading as Hitler for a laugh.

He knew he'd cause a stir, he did, and I really think that's all he wanted, nothing about the First Amendment was on his mind at all. That was his parents, and therein lies the blame, and hopefully instill shame, that the people responsible for the formation of a decent human being could get things so mixed up and permit such a caustic, cruel act - worse, using their own son to do it. He, of course, was happy to oblige as most teens are where causing a mess among order is concerned. That's nothing.

I really would want to hear how these Constitutionally-minded parents would explain it all to just one Jewish person, just one. But talk about scary, I pulled this thread out further and found a monster I couldn't talk away: the monster of the future. Right now, a kid could dress up as Alexander the Great and gets kudos and candy, no one would think twice and in fact cheer on his or her originality. The millions who died at the orders of Alexander, a true killer, a soldier in his time which again were times of war. I know there's no comparison to the two men, yet both were adored in their time by the people they killed for, those who demanded the death of others.

My real point is that no one would take offense today at a "parody" of Alexander the Great. So it will happen, then, that someday in the future another kid would look forward to Hallowe'en with his HITLER costume, go out in public, get candy and kudos and no one is offended or outraged. THAT'S the monster that would keep me awake at night.

It's happened already and will happen again - where humans allow the healing balm of time to dull memory, even historical fact, and on we go none the wiser for the lessons of the past.

"Autumn Occurs To Me"

How can you but chose the explosion of color

at the beginning of the end of summer?

Nothing could be duller

than a season with no change,

and as the Good God does arrange,

all aglow and seeming without reason,

is this verge we are on, of the merging of

brown and red and gold, yellow from green

mellowing from the unseen cold.

Mountains are dressed

in bursts of shimmering trees,

all ablaze in their best, meant for you,

meant to please - which they do - as they glimmer.

I have come to believe that too much Autumn

might put one in a craze, for you cannot leave;

Who, from the sight, would turn from it?

In a daze, you listen to silent thunder,

you stand in wonder as you gaze -

This is what God, for us, did commit.

I stand to offer highest praise.

Cathy Rapicano - posted 9/7/06

Remember when, Jupiter?

Side by side, one of these is a comet, the other an asteroid. Similar aren't they. It's not till the sun heats the comet that we see the familiar tail of dusty ice. Don't you love asteroids and comets? Speaking of asteroids in a minute.

These images of Jupiter are shown in true color on left, and enhanced for detailed on right. Exact same area.







It's been almost 20 years this Sunday since humans launched Galileo into the realms of Jupiter.

What we've learned and seen since the 1990s is incalculable.

But the craft was making discoveries long before it arrived.

(Just for show: Look at the poles of Jupiter below, via infrared. It spins faster than any other body in our sol-system)

So here's what else Galileo brought us:
BELOW is the huge asteroid GASPRA (color-enhanced.)
BELOW is the amazing asteroid, IDA, with its moon DACTYL. The tiny dot to the right, middle, is the actual picture and size of Dactyl. The upper right shot is to show a better view. Imagine a moon orbiting an asteroid. If IDA left its asteroid belt, we're have nowhere to hide. Yikes.


And here's a few seconds of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact in Jovian space. Don't know why you have to copy & paste, sorry. But it's worth it. (For some reason, Blogger doesn't seem to like moving shots.) Watch this fragment impact Jovian space:

http://aem.umn.edu/people/faculty/shield/comet/keck-R.mpg

It's a reminder that it was our special emmisary Galileo who brought us those unforgettable images. You see those 3 dark comet parts? They're not impacting Jupiter actually, they're exploding in the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter. Just like it would happen here on Earth. It would break up into many, smaller parts. By the time a piece reached the planet, it would leave a just small crater. But we know that's not how it always happens - look at the Moon for instance, or Mars. They have no atmosphere; a "small" piece of comet could reach 10 miles long. Fascinating!

This Might Be Too Much

Now that we can congratulate ourselves on how much we love our children - more than anything - anyone - would kill for them if we had to - here's the part of the issue we always shrink away from. It's just too painful. Too far beyond our everyday experience. If you have a strong, caring heart, watch these 2 videos. The truth is, all children are everybody's children, and the next time you see someone hitting a child on the rear in the supermarket, or screaming at a toddler on the sidewalk, I implore you - don't hesitate to wonder if it's your business - go up to that adult and defend that child! Your child. My child. Everyone's child.

Remember, these videos are rough. This is the subject we don't like to think exists, that grown adults can be so cruel, so utterly without care for our helpless little ones. But it's all too common.

http://media.causes.com/564357?p_id=47419758

http://media.causes.com/556422?p_id=47419758


COPY PASTE WATCH. Then hug your child, any child, and cry. But if you can't watch, just ignore it, who could blame you.