Sad to say goodbye to Donald Sutherland…
Archive for June, 2024
Lollypops…
that sweet sugar explosion
on your tongue
raspberry
cherry
or grape
makes a summer day
even better
candy
shared with another
is the best treat
of all
Picture: Pixabay
The Magic Shop…a story. Part One
“Can I help you?” asked the elderly man, wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt and torn at the knees jeans, standing behind the counter.
“Uh,” said the young man, looking around at the floor to ceiling shelves of books. “I think I’m in the wrong place.”
“How can anyone be in the wrong place?”
“I was looking for a magic shop. I was given this address.”
“This IS the magic shop you seek.”
“But it’s a bookstore,” said the young man, smiling.
“I can see you’re a quick learner,” chuckled the old man, stacking books on the stool next to him.
“A bookstore isn’t a magic shop. You don’t sell tricks, or…”
“Oh my. Hasn’t anyone told you that books ARE magic? I thought everyone knew that. Goodness, you must have had a difficult childhood.”
“Actually, I had a wonderful childhood.”
“Did you have books? Did someone read to you?” asked the old man.
“Yes and sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“At night, when I was a child and everyone was asleep, a young girl came into my room, sat on the edge of my bed, and read to me. I don’t know who she was or where she came from and I wouldn’t need a babysitter when my parents were home, right?”
“I see,” said the old man, scratching his chin.
“You see, what?”
He nodded and waved the young man closer.
“You were one of the those children. The fairies chose you. They cared for you and read to you. And I know,” he said, holding up his hand to stop the young man from speaking, “this sounds strange but what books did she read to you?”
“What books? It was a long time ago. I don’t I remember.”
“Please try.”
“Why do you care?”
“Please,” said the old man, softly. “Just try.”
He sighed, closed his eyes, and bowed his head. Finally, after a few minutes he looked up.”Her name was Jade. She always worn green and had green sparkles in her white hair,” he said, smiling at the memory. “Jade read to me and told me stories. She read about dragons and fancy balls. She told me stories of babies traded for other babies. Isn’t that illegal? To swap babies?”
“What else?”
“That’s all I remember,” he said, suddenly, standing up straight.
“Can I tell you a story?”
“Look, I have to find the magic shop. I’m getting some things for my nephew’s birthday and he’s into magic.”
“I can recommend several books.”
“Are they about magic?”
“Most certainly,” said the old man.
“I mean like how to be a magician, kind of magic.”
“I may have something like that,” he muttered, scrolling through a long list on a clip board.
“I have to go,” said the young man, turning to leave.
“Jade was a fairy, you know,” said the old man, casually. “Swapping one baby for another is what they do. They exchange a fairy infant, a changeling, for a human one. Why do you think she came to you each night?”
“No idea and I don’t believe in that stuff.”
“That stuff, seems to believe in you.”
“Whatever,” said the young man, walking toward the door.
“You have pale skin and eyes that…”
“Eyes that what?” he asked, returning to the counter, anger in his voice “Eyes that WHAT?”
“Eyes that are ice blue and see things others don’t.”
“I have a condition and it’s rude to point those things out to people.”
“You don’t have a condition, young man. You’re not human. But I guess that could be considered a condition, if you want to think of it that way.”
“Your shirt says the Rolling Stones were on a world tour in nineteen thirty-five. That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
“Did you have the shirt made?”
“I bought it on site. It was a great concert. Keith Richards won the night.”
The old man wrapped up two books and pushed them to the edge of the counter where they disappeared. Money lay on the counter instead.
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Where did the books go?”
“Someone bought them.”
“There’s no one here,” said the young man, looking around.
“It seems that way, doesn’t it. And yet. The shop is rather crowded.”
“What is this place? And what do you mean I’m not human?”
“This is a magic shop and you’re a fairy.”
“Are you on medication?”
“I am not.”
“You think this shop is crowded?”
“It is. Would you like to see?”
“Yes,” said the young man, feeling that he had the old man trapped in his delusion, at last.
The man smiled and snapped his fingers and the busy shop came alive. People were everywhere, looking at books, chatting. Some of them looked human, others had wings, or strangely shaped ears. Beings were blue and green pink and gold and some looked like regular humans.
“What is all of this?”
“This is an interstellar Magic Shop. Beings from everywhere come here to shop an meet others like themselves.”
“This can’t be real.”
“Why not?”
“Because things like this don’t exist.”
“You might want to reevaluate your belief on that one,” said the old man, snapping his fingers so they were once again alone.
“Where did everyone go?”
“They’re still here, but it’s easier to talk if we’re seemingly alone.”
“Do you know what’s happening to me?”
“I do. The question you need to ask yourself is, do you really want to know. I can erase your memory of this experience, and you can walk out of here and go back to your everyday life, or I can tell you…”
“Tell me.”
“You’re a changeling. Apparently, a fairy didn’t just dump you into the care of a human, but watched over you, by visiting every night. That rarely happens. Someone from Fairy loved you. Loves you still. You have the sight, or you wouldn’t have been able to see those walking around the shop.”
The young man put his hands on his chest. “I’m a fairy?”
“You are.”
“What if I don’t want to be one?”
“See, now that could be a problem, since it’s what you are.”
Picture: Pixabay
Okay, so…
Yesterday I read a blog post written by an older gentleman. Unfortunately I erased it by accident, so I can’t mention the blog. Sorry about that. Anyway, he wrote about the problems on college campuses. He was upset by the unrest. He often talks about the old days and how good they were. People were nice and things were good where he came from.
After reading his latest post I thought, this guy lives in a completely different America than I do.
The America I know was never nice. The America I know was founded on the death of Native Americans. Founded on white male dominance, kidnapping, the selling of those who were kidnapped and enslaved, not even considered human, murdered freely, the females raped, and poverty, violence, lynchings, never ending toil and abuse was all they would ever know. That’s what this country was built on by the white MEN who should never have been able to get away with it in the first place. The so called “founding fathers.”
People were SO brutalized that they were not ALLOWED to be taught to read or write. Children were taken from their families and SOLD TO OTHER WHITE MEN, as slaves which were handed down to others through wills. THAT was AMERICA I was told I lived in. And racism continues to this very moment.
And by the way, females were not allowed to go to college, period. They weren’t allowed to do much util they fought back, were put in prison, beaten, dragged through the street by their hair, just because they had the nerve to want the right to vote. We still don’t make the same amount as men do for the same job. Equality does not exist for women. But we are expected to be grateful for what we are given and not talk about what is taken away.
Women had no rights and are still, to this very day, fighting to have the right to own THEIR OWN BODIES. Now the republicans want to take away birth control. Women and minorities have NO voice. None at all. It’s a joke to believe that they do. They can speak but it won’t change anything.
Some, in the south, believe that the Civil War still isn’t over.
How about the National Guard killing unarmed, innocent students, as they walked on campus at Kent State. The leader of the guard telling a teacher, you better get those kids out of here because we are going to start shooting them. The National Guard KILLING INNOCENT STUDENTS AND READY TO KILL MORE.
How about Mayor Daley setting the Chicago police on peaceful protesters outside the Democratic Convention. Beating them with clubs and causing untold damage.
How about Viet Nam. A government too ashamed to admit the war was over, letting all those men DIE, because of their white male pride and political careers.
How about the burning of witches in Salem.
How about a government that lies to the people, encourages violence and infiltrates campus groups, as well as most groups, TO START TROUBLE, and watch what citizens are doing. Remember the placing of bricks, etc., in front of shops put there so the planted paid stooges working for the government, would have what they needed to start a riot. It was ANOTHER set up.
How about a government that can arrest you at a peaceful protest, pick you off the street without informing you of your rights, or telling you who they are, and just take you away. Yes, there are videos.
How about having a police force that is wearing military grade equipment in the street at peaceful protests, as if they are at WAR with other Americans, they are sworn TO PROTECT, while letting the republican politicians who attacked their own government WALK AWAY WITH NO PUNISHMENT AT ALL.
How about the fact that women are afraid to go out at night. Women who sleep with windows closed because they are afraid to open them. Who go places with others, for safety, including bathrooms. Who are attacked EVERYWHERE, in buildings, parking lots, elevators, EVERYWHERE.
This is a VIOLENT country that we seem to overlook, or are helpless to change.
How about the fact that America has a terrible live birth rate.
How about the fact that rape on campus is rampant and underreported to keep the reputation of colleges in tact, and KEEP money for sports programs coming in. This is a more important issue that the unrest that’s taking place on campus right now, as far as I’m concerned, but people just seem to ignore it for the flashy news stories, and it’s happening to women, so no big deal.
How about the fact that education in America is so bad that high school graduates can’t read or write. And schools were made not to teach children to think for themselves but to work in factories and slowly die for the rich.
How about America charging outrageous prices for drugs that are free or inexpensive in other countries. People DIE because of this.
How about trump and his followers.
How about when trump let a kid die in a cage, after children were TAKEN FROM THEIR immigrant PARENTS. Okay, this is why I love Chicago. When the orange one was TAKING CHILDREN FROM THEIR HOMES, our mayor said, it wasn’t going to happen here. trump said he would send in troops. Our mayor said, they’re already here. No one was taken from Chicago, but the fear kept children home from school. Therapists had to be called in to work with the terrified children. And again, children from different places were put INTO CAGES. At least one child died and even now, some children have not been reunited with their parents. Bigger problem than unrest on campus exist.
How about health care for some, but not for others.
Well, this list could go on and on and on. The point is, the man who wrote the post is upset about the unrest on campus over the Israel/Palestine war. I want to tell him that there are BIGGER problems in this country. Campus unrest is a distraction. Remember in the south when integration began and little girls and children had to be protected by men with guns for just going to school? Remember THAT AMERICA. That America is still here.
I think we need to be upset with the GOVERNMENT and the LIES and the high cost of living and the fact that many people feel RIPPED OFF and again, the lies and the lies and the lies. And the never ending WARS and the GREED and the hopelessness many feel and the homeless, and the drug abuse and the high suicide rate and the DEATH OF THE FREE PRESS and people dropping out, and tent cities popping up around the country and the fear they are generating, and on and on and on. THE BELIEF IN SCARCITY RATHER THAN ABUNDANCE. We HAVE abundance but are forced to live with the idea of scarcity by a government who pits us against each other and tells us scarcity is all we have, as they take more and more from the people. More LIES. More hatred.
I think all of this is unnecessary and pathetic. GREED and LIES, the inability to have a government that works FOR the people, instead of for ITSELF is destroying this country and still white men are in charge and the destruction continues. They have even turned to killing Nature.
I hope, at the very end, it’s just two white idiot men in suits fighting to the death, with no one to put between themselves to die in their stead. I imagine them swatting at each other like tiny children, afraid of getting hurt, after sending millions to die.
And they are afraid. Afraid that one day, people will say, THAT’S ENOUGH and then where will they hide?
Hatred, division (to make sure people don’t work together), and violence are all encouraged and allowed, to make sure we the people have no power. Imagine what we could do if we did work together. But we don’t and we won’t, as long as the government and those in charge benefit from people hating each other. And THEY DO. They get away with murder while people go to bed hungry.
It doesn’t matter that the students on campus don’t understand the issues (the blogger didn’t think they did). It does’t matter that they just blindly do whatever they are doing, harassing other students, talking this or that…and the reason it doesn’t matter is because that is a prime example of our entire country and government. NO ONE knows what’s going on because the free press is dead and everything is propaganda and lies. So if you watch the news you’re being spoon fed what the men in charge want you to believe. The students will do what students do. People will suffer, be unhappy, while it lasts, until the next big distraction masks all of the above issues that NEVER CHANGE and have become systemic to this country, continue fester.
The horrors that are put upon people every single day, because of their color, their gender, their age, ethnicity, sexual preference, or economic means, is by far and away more deadly and hateful, than anything that’s happening on campuses today. And the dumbest thing of all…people just want to live their lives. No one really wants all this drama and hatred, but when your culture loves spreading hatred, when violence is rewarded and the government SETS THE EXAMPLE of loving violence…this is what you get.
We are way too divided to dig ourselves out of whatever hole we let ourselves be dropped into. At least at the moment. It’s as if the country is on fire and everyone is working to put the fire nearest to them out, so everything continues to burn because there aren’t enough people doing one thing, to make it stop. Divided we fall. We are divided.
I have no answers. None at all.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
The Conversation…
“You asked for this,” he said, rolling to his side. “Summer. You wanted it and now it’s here, broiling us to death.”
“It is hot,” she agreed.
“To put it mildly,” he sighed.
I could get you a wading pool.”
He sat up. “Do I look like a tiger? Cats don’t like water, except for TIGERS and not one of us knows why they like it. So, you can skip the wading pool.”
“You could stand in it. It’s not like you would have to swim.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
“You look tired, but in a good mood.”
“I’m staying up with all of you until two or three in the morning, so I’m tired. But I love being with all of you, so I’m happy.”
He stared at her. “Humans complicate everything. You know that, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“A lot of reasons. Mainly I think everyone is just bored.”
“So they fight and kill each other? Complain and do everything they can to escape?”
“Pretty much. Not everyone kills other people but most are trying to escape.”
“Cats are so much better than humans.”
“I agree, but I am not getting tested to see if I have feline markers in my blood.”
“You’re loss,” he said.
“I know I’ve asked you before, but why did you come here. I mean why did you incarnate?”
“Probably because you need someone to look after you and that would me me.”
“Thank you.”
“You believe me?” he said, eating the last of his treats.
“Sure, why wouldn’t I?”
“Why did you come here?”
“Probably so you would have someone to watch over.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It just seems wrong.”
She nodded. “The other reason would be that I was insane when I said I would do it.”
“That makes more sense.”
“Agree.”
“What do you know about brine shrimp?”
“Not a single thing,” she said. “And before you ask, I’m not getting any for you.”
“What if it was for my birthday?”
“Is it your birthday?”
“It could be.”
“You don’t know when your birthday is, do you.”
“I was born in an alley and my mom never told me. So, no. Not really.”
“I brought you another book?”
“What about the brine shrimp question?”
“It’s about Lake Michigan.”
“Seriously? Lake Michigan?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a killer lake.”
“It is.”
“Why would I want to read about a lake that kill those who go into it?”
“Because it’s only a few blocks away and it doesn’t kill that many people.”
“Are there shrimp in the lake?” he asked.
“Not really.”
“The only thing going for it is the huge litter box,” he said.
“You mean the beach?”
“Is that what you call it?”
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“About what?” he snickered.
“It’s really a book about cats,” she said, pulling it out of her tote bag.
“I am a cat. I don’t need a book to tell me that I am one.”
“I know that. But…”
“What if I gave you a book about yourself.”
“Fine. I’ll take it back,” she sighed, dropping it into the bag.
“I’d like a book on how to raise chickens.”
“No.”
“What are you reading?”
“A book on how women are discriminated against and never allowed to age and how they spend their whole lives trying to be a girl so they aren’t punished for growing up and becoming an old woman.”
“I’d rather read about Lake Michigan.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“Cats don’t have those kinds of problems. Sure, an older cat might not be able to jump as high as he did when he was younger but no one would know that unless he jumped in front of other cats. We don’t get wrinkles either. Another plus about being feline. Why do you read depressing books?”
“That’s a good question.”
“I mean it’s too late for you. Look at you. You’re not a girl, except genetically. Your girlhood has been gone for a long time, if you ask me”
“I didn’t ask you.”
“I was trying to be helpful,” he said, licking his shoulder. “How about a book on raising rabbits?”
“No.”
“Are you leaving?”
“Yes,” she said, standing up. “I’m going to build a cat wall in the living room and dining room. You know, shelves and tunnels you can climb and…”
“We live outside. We can climb everything.”
“So you don’t want a climbing wall.”
“Look over there,” he said.
She tuned and saw Timmy, a tiger striped cat, walking along the top of a fence. He jumped from the fence to the branch of a tree, then onto the porch of an apartment building.”
“You’re right,” she said. “You guys don’t need a climbing wall. I didn’t think it through.”
“Duh.”
“I’ll see you tonight,” she said, bending to kiss him all over his face and listen to him purr. “I have new catnip for everyone. So take a nice nap and tell Jinx where I put his food. I love you.”
Rethinking Life 
Written
on June 19, 2024