Internal conflicts

I have been so busy. I love being busy ... but keeping up with appointments, what takes priority in work life, keeping a close relationship with my Google calendar .. really stresses me out. 

It has been a long time since I drove anywhere long enough to listen to KUOW. Today I had a meeting in Redmond … actually got "dressed" with earrings, watch and underwear. I miss my clothes. I love my clothes. Not that I don't love staying in paint T-shirts and black yoga-type pants all day long, I do. I am not complaining. But just like the summer, I looked at my linen shirts, watches or bracelets that I never wore. Now in the closet, felted wool coats, sweaters and scarves that long to be taken out in public. I guess I need to get out more. 

Stopped off at the Microsoft campus to collect branches. They always have the best fallen branches after a wind storm. So Mom's Jeep is pack-full of tree limbs. My truck is on loan. Mom is warning me to clean out her Jeep quickly. I have a possible show and need "big Brantlers" hence big branches! Woo Hoo. 

Okay, so my point of this post was a piece I heard on KUOW today that literally kick me in the gut. Made me blurry-eyed with a flood of tears that I thought I should pull over and collect myself. Not many stories shake me to the core. But this one did. It an interview with James Jude Orbinski, Canadian physician, writer, and humanitarian activist about his experience during the genocide in Rwanda. It was his personal recollection of a mutilated woman, her ears and breasts had been cut off with a machete that was so moving. Here is a link at  KUOW ... please go have a listen.

I found this documentary on Netflix, "Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma", that I must watch now. "Writing a book about his past experiences and the current situation in Africa, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former head of Doctors Without Borders Dr. James Orbinski travels to Somalia, Rwanda and the Congo, where he confronts disturbing truths. This documentary follows Orbinski's incredible journey as he recalls troubling memories of violence and despair but also finds signs of solidarity, compassion and true humanitarianism." 

Thinking of worldwide conflict within countries,  Tutsis and Hutus, Sunnis and Shiites, Serbs and Croats, (of course, WWII is at the top of this list). Just a few unspeakable events of internal war and genocide. I always wondered how people could do these horrible things to each other. I will never understand how a human can mutilate another human, not killing them but cutting them into pieces and leaving them alive for awhile to suffer to their death. Starving to death. If I think about these things too long, I lose hope. But then I hear thoughts from Dr. Orbinski and I feel hopeful again.

I started this post last night ... batteries ran out on my keyboard. Ran around the house taking batteries from various remotes. THEN my mouse went out. In the process of all of that ... I lost most of this post I had written and started writing it over again. Got half way through and my Mac slowed down and started acting crazy. I guess I hit publish instead of save.

I heard something on a news show about Super Pacs ... stopped typing to have a listen. I am completely disgusted with Super Pac money being completely wasted ... those expensive ads are wasted on me. That precious money might as well be burned. And I think how those millions of dollars could be used saving our schools, our local governments, helping unemployed keep their homes. So many other good uses for those large sums of money. And really, that makes me sick to my stomach. What has happen to this country?

I feel like Democrats and Republicans are splitting this country apart ... of course, without guns and machetes, death and genocide. But I get that depressing feeling that this country will never politically come together.


later post ... this is the stuff that scares me ...

And this story Death of an Ordinary Housecat

 I agree, "The delusional fringe has come in from the margin and runs the party."  - Bill Moyer